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In the field of “Culture and Personality”, one of the important concepts employed by the proponents of the genetic approach concerns the practice of breast feeding or nursing. (3) The genetic approach holds that the culturally determined techniques of infant rearing are crucial in the formation of character, and among these techniques breast feeding is important both intrinsically and also as a prime index of the prevailing syndrome of child rearing practices. The prevalance of breast feeding; its duration; its emotional quality; the suddenness/gradualness and toughness/gentleness of weaning, are all considered important variables to be consulted in describing or predicting character. (1)
The striking rapidity with which American mothers of middle and upper socio-economic strata took to the schedule, scale, formula, and other impersonal appurtances and techniques of infant rearing has been remarked (2) as have the presumed psychopathological consequences of this depersonalization of the mother-child relationship (4). Some inconsistencies in the evidence (6) and some data which tend to