Alan: We easily forget that American psychological credos were profoundly pathological until the last 50 years. Long after my birth in 1947, breastfeeding was considered inferior to formula and mothers who were physically capable of breasting were told they were not. Read the transcript of this episode's prologue to glimpse the bizarre contempt in which love was held. One school of psychological orthodoxy cautioned that children would be spoiled if kissed more than once a year.
317: Unconditional Love
SEP 15, 2006
Can love be taught? A family uses a controversial therapy to train their son to love them. And other stories about the hard and sometimes painful work of loving other people.
PROMO
- EPISODE AVAILABLE SUNDAY 7PM CENTRAL
- TRANSCRIPT
- Hard as it is to believe, during the early Twentieth Century, a whole school of mental health professionals decided that unconditional love was a terrible thing to give a child. The government printed pamphlets warning mothers against the dangers of holding their kids. The head of the American Psychological Association and even a mothers' organization endorsed the position that mothers were dangerous — until psychologist Harry Harlow set out to prove them wrong, through a series of experiments with monkeys. Host Ira Glass talks with Deborah Blum, author of Love at Goon Park: Harry Harlow and the Science of Affection. (9 minutes)
- Alix Spiegel tells the story of a couple, Heidi and Rick Solomon, who adopt a son who was raised in terrible circumstances in a Romanian orphanage, unable to feel attachments to anyone...and what they do about it. Alix reports on mental health for NPR. (27 minutes)SONG: "LOVELESS TOWN", SARAH BLUST
- Dave Royko talks about the decision he and his wife faced recently about his autistic son's future, and whether he should continue to live with the family. (19 minutes)
Photo
Harry Harlow, from the Prologue.