In this video we can see exactly what it consisted of one of the most famous experiments made to investigate the nature of the son's relationship with his mother, the made by harry harlow.
The work of this psychologist deepened aspects of parenting, the need for physical contact of the offspring and the consequences of emotional deprivation.
I worked with macaques and, although very revealing, I have to say that the experiment seems like a terrible cruelty to those babies (babies, even if they were monkey babies) to those who deprived them of having the affection of their mothers.
What this experiment came to demonstrate is that a baby needs and seeks, as a primary need for its survival, the physical contact that transmits feelings of security and affection, even above the search for food.
Human children are not so different from cute babies of harlow experiment, his need for physical affection and closeness, love and security is also channeled naturally with skin-to-skin contact.
Let us never forget, safety and happiness babies find in our warm, available and affectionate body, not in methods that teach them autonomy and detachment prematurely.
If we don't forget that, maybe the suffering of these monkeys from harlow experiment It has not been completely in vain, although I keep saying that it is something that should never have been done. It seems absurd that we need to hurt another living being to show what instinct and heart already dictate to us: our babies need to be close to our body.
Video | Youtube
In Babies and more | What is the "soft mother" theory? Documentary: Baby's Brain by Eduardo Punset (1), John Bowlby's Theory of Attachment
