Nature and Nurture of Love

From Imprinting to Attachment in Cold War America

Marga Vicedo

The notion that maternal care and love will determine a child's emotional well-being and future personality has become ubiquitous. In countless stories and movies we find that the problems of the protagonists – anything from the fear of romantic commitment to serial killing – stem from their troubled relationships with their mothers during childhood. How did we come to hold these views about the determinant power of mother love over an individual's emotional development? And what does this vision of mother love entail for children and mothers? In "The Nature and Nurture of Love", Marga Vicedo examines scientific views about children's emotional needs and mother love from World War II until the 1970s, paying particular attention to John Bowlby's ethological theory of attachment behavior. Vicedo tracks the development of Bowlby's work as well as the interdisciplinary research that he used to support his theory, including Konrad Lorenz's studies of imprinting in geese, Harry Harlow's experiments with monkeys, and Mary Ainsworth's observations of children and mothers in Uganda and the United States. Vicedo's historical analysis reveals that important psychoanalysts and animal researchers opposed the project of turning emotions into biological instincts. Despite those criticisms, she argues that attachment theory was paramount in turning mother love into a biological need. This shift introduced a new justification for the prescriptive role of biology in human affairs and had profound – and negative – consequences for mothers and for the valuation of mother love.

About the Author

Marga Vicedo is associate professor in the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at the University of Toronto.

Reviews

"At a moment when instinct is considered a self-evident fact of human and nonhuman existence, 'The Nature and Nurture of Love' asks a big question about the role of biology in human affairs. How did science inform the social organization of child rearing in the United States during the early Cold War era? Vicedo's fascinating book shows that very uncertain findings in ethology, psychoanalysis, and primatology were translated into conservative cultural certainties about human development, motherhood, and the kind of nurture that children needed and deserved. Her wonderfully blunt style and refreshing skepticism illuminate the sciences of love. I can think of few other books that bring history as boldly to bear on debates about human nature, work/family balance, and the urgent question of how we care for children as women pursue lives that stretch far beyond maternity" – Ellen Herman, University of Oregon

"Through her astute investigation of the history of attachment theory and the modern concept of 'mother love', Marga Vicedo reminds us that scientific pronouncements on the social lessons of biology tend to be freighted with prevailing preconceptions about the proper ordering of society. She offers an insightful and thought-provoking analysis of how attachment theory developed amidst postwar anxieties about the erosion of traditional gender roles. With its remarkable cast of scientific characters (including John Bowlby, Konrad Lorenz, and Harry Harlow) and its attention to multiple disciplines (ethology, comparative psychology, and psychoanalysis), this book is certain to appeal to a wide range of readers" – Richard W. Burkhardt, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

"Angst-ridden parents who fear they may not be adequately meeting their infant's emotional needs will gain valuable perspective from Marga Vicedo's 'The Nature and Nurture of Love', which shows how recent this preoccupation actually is. This thoroughly original and deeply researched study explains how leading postwar psychologists and biologists reduced mother love and infant attachment to biological instincts that stymied healthy emotional development if thwarted or unmet. Revisiting the field's most influential animal and human studies, Vicedo levels a brilliant and provocative critique of attachment theory – one that will challenge present-day proponents to defend its central claims more rigorously" – Rebecca Jo Plant, University of California, San Diego

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