Spitz observed that babies removed from their mother’s care and left in a hospital showed tension, anxieties, excitement and a accentuated demanding attitude toward the environment.
When deprivation lasts longer than three months, irreversible changes take and permanent damage follows, which interferes with the infant’s capacity of adaptation.
(Edited by María Moya Guirao, MD)
beloved mother
The american psychoanalyst Rene Spitz (1887-1974) described the Hospitalism Syndrome in 1945. This syndrome occurs in babies when they are separated from a loving mother for a period of more than three months.
Hospitalism is caused by not being attended children in their emotional needs (hugs, caresses, talking to them, smiling, etc.), even if they had been given exquisite care in their physical needs (food, medical care, proper clothing, etc.).
This Rene Spitz discovery, hospitalism, made it necessary to take into account the emotional and affective needs of babies admitted to institutions. And so, mothers were allowed to stay with their children when they were admitted to a hospital. The presence of the mother with the child reduces anxiety and helps a faster recovery; that is why currently in children’s hospitals, mothers are allowed to stay with their sick children.
But a sick child should not be overprotected, and it will be treated, as far as possible, not too different from the rest of the children of their age. Most children’s hospitals have teachers and a “school” where children can go every day to perform different tasks. This is especially important for children who have to be hospitalized for a long time.
The family will give the sick children affection and attention. Family must help and facilitate proper activities for his sick childrem. But family will take special care that the child does not obtain certain “secondary earnings” on account of his sick status.
In summary, the Hospitalism Syndrome will be avoided with the presence with of their beloved mother.
(Edited by Dr. María Moya Guirao, MD)
mona con su cría
Did you know…..
that Harry Harlow (1905-1981) carried out interesting experiments in the sixties on the psychological effects on the offspring of rhesus monkeys isolated from their mothers?
What this American psychologist, companion of Abraham Maslow in the University of Wisconsin, saw is that the physical contact with the mother in the pups of rhesus monkeys is tremendously important for the normal psychological development of these monkeys.
In one of his experiments Harlow put some monkey pups with a “mother” made of soft towel cloth, which did not give the monkey any food. There was another “mother” made of wire next to which was a bottle from which the baby could eat. The cubs had been kept away from their real mothers a few hours after birth. Well, the result was that the babies spent more time with the rag mother than with the wire mother, although this one could “feed them” and the other did not.
The psychoanalyst John Bowlby had already demonstrated the importance of contact with the mother, “Theory of attachment,” in human babies. The American psychoanalyst René Spitz had also reached similar conclusions by studying children far from their mothers.
On the other hand, somehow the experiments of Harlow and the studies of the psychoanalysts cited contradicted the assertion of the first behaviorists who underestimated the role of emotions and focused solely on the study of behavior. These behaviorists considered that only measurable behaviors should be studied or investigated, and what was not so, they did not consider it scientific. Behavioral psychologist John Watson said the following: “When tempted to caress your child, remember that mother’s love is a dangerous instrument.”
(Edited by Dr. María Moya Guirao, MD)
René Spitz described a disturbance of infancy which he called “Hospitalism“. This is a vitiated condition of the body due to long confinement in a hospital or institution.
Spitz studied many children in two institutions and other reared at home using tests and films. The result was that the babies in institutions (hospital or foundling home) were more susceptible to illness and showed a high mortality rate than children at home.
(Edited by Dr. María Moya Guirao, MD)
Did you know that….
mother-child relationship is a basic factor in the development of an adaptable and flexible ego ?
René Spitz observed that babies removed from their mother’s care and left in a hospital showed anxiety.
(Edited by Dr. María Moya Guirao, MD)