Lack of love can be deadly

Severe emotional deprivation has been shown to lead to death in orphanages, according to biologist Inês Varela-Silva,

When I started researching orphanages and child health I read the classic works of paediatrician Harry Bakwin, psychologist John Bowlby and psychiatrist Harry Edelston. At the beginning of the 20th century, in the US and the UK, the death rates among infants placed in orphanages, nurseries, and foundling hospitals were, in some cases, close to 100%. London’s Foundling Museum documents in depth these harsh realities. In the 1940s, the work of psychoanalyst Rene Spitz further documented high infant death rates (one out of three) and, among the babies who didn’t die, high percentages of cognitive, behavioural and psychological disfunction.

Most of these deaths were not due to starvation or disease, but to severe emotional and sensorial deprivation – in other words, a lack of love. These babies were fed and medically treated, but they were absolutely deprived of important stimulation, especially touch and affection.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.