Reference:
Title: Chapter 6: Monkey Love
Author: Lauren Slater
Venue: Book
Summary:
Harry Harlow's experiments with monkeys likely began the animal rights movement. He was very cruel to the animals, but it also led to great medical advancements and achievements.
Harry Harlow was born Harry Israel. He married twice, having two kids with each woman, and having affairs in both marriages as well. The affair is what ruined his first marriage. He struggled with depression and, later in life, heavy drinking.
Harlow originally set out to study intelligence in monkeys but stumbled upon another discovery. He had be separating the monkeys from their mothers at birth, and the monkeys became very attached to a blanket in their cage, so attached that they would scream if the blanket were taken away. Harlow then began to study love, and whether it was tied to food as had been hypothesized in that time period. He created surrogate mothers, one that was in the material of the blankets with a pretty face, and one that provided nutrition but was not soft. The monkeys attached themselves to the soft mother and loved it very deeply. Harlow then proclaimed that nutrition was not the factor involving love, but rather "contact comfort." This discovery shook the psychology world and made Harlow famous. Harlow decided to take his experiments further. He created surrogates again the same way, but this time the cloth mother would blast the monkeys with incredibly cold air or even stab the monkeys. He labeled this mother as the Iron Maiden. Still, the monkeys loved the Iron Maiden.
However, these monkeys turned out to be socially impaired, almost autistic. They bit off their own hands and fingers and could not get along with others. This made Harlow backtrack on his proclamation and say there are other factors than just the comfort. He found if the surrogates rocked the monkeys and if the monkeys were allowed to interact with other monkeys for just 30 minutes a day, then the monkeys generally turned out normal.
Harlow then wanted to see if these monkeys could reproduce, and what kind of mothers they would be. However, they had no instincts on how to mate, and clawed the male monkeys' faces. So Harlow created a "rape rack," that tied the female monkeys down and allowed the males to do their business. As mothers, these monkeys generally could not suffice. A good number either killed their offspring or displayed ambivalence towards them. Only some were loving mothers.
Later in his life, Harlow decided to study depression because of his own struggles with the disease. He would strap down monkeys in dark rooms, feeding them through certain devices, and leave them there for months or even years. All of these monkeys turned out "shattered and psychotic." Harlow died of Parkinson's disease.
Discussion:
It was truly horrifying for me to read what this guy did to those monkeys. I'm no animal rights activist, but I do believe one has to be pretty messed up to torture animals. On the flip side, I think if one had to choose the life or wellbeing of a loved one versus the life of an animal, one should always choose the loved one. I would hate to meet the person that would choose the animal. At least now I understand where all these depictions of horrible treatment for animals originates. Man this guy was just a sick individual. No one should do the things he did, let alone draw satisfaction from it. However, I do acknowledge the benefits that came about from his research. I guess someone had to do it, but I'm sure glad it wasn't me.
No comments:
Post a Comment