A01=Marga Vicedo
affect theory
animal behavior
attachment
Author_Marga Vicedo
biological reductionism
biology
birds
Category=JMC
Category=JMQ
Category=NHK
Category=PDX
cold war
deprivation
emotional development
emotions
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_science
eq_society-politics
ethology
evolutionary determinism
family
fear of commitment
geese
harry harlow
imprinting
instinct
john bowlby
konrad lorenz
love
mary ainsworth
maternal
monkeys
mothers and sons
nonfiction
ontogeny
overprotection
parenting
peers
primates
psychoanalysis
psychology
serial killers
uganda
working mother
Product details
- ISBN 9780226020556
- Weight: 595g
- Dimensions: 16 x 24mm
- Publication Date: 16 May 2013
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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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, despite criticism, 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.
Marga Vicedo is associate professor in the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at the University of Toronto.
