Social Deprivation in Childhood and Character Formation

Reginald Lourie opened the panel by emphasizing the relevancy of psychoanalytic data to many current social problems, saying that "psychoanalytic information has provided the core basis on which many of the human problems involved can be understood and therefore approached." Child psychoanalysts especially have been involved in utilizing psychoanalytic information to assist in resolving root problems of communities. Lourie reminded the audience that deprivation as an influence on child development can occur at any level in society, but the focus of the panel was on those types of rearing imposed by poverty with its fostering of dependency, hopelessness, helplessness, and passivity.

Humberto Nagera's presentation concerned "deprivation in the earlier stages of life, when lack of appropriate stimulation (or lack of protection from excessive stimuli) may distort or stunt the growth of brain structures, or, in psychoanalytic terms, distort the growth of the somatic and psychological ego apparatuses." He referred to the somatic ego apparatus underlying any given ego function and the qualitative differences—"innate givens"—in these organic structures from one individual to another. Recent data suggests that much that has been considered innate can be shown to have been acquired during the first year of life. The genetic potential, in terms of the development of the anatomical structures of the brain, must continue after birth, if it is to reach its fulfillment. This continuation is dependent on internal, embryological maturational forces and the interaction of such forces with varying forms of external stimulation. The nature of the early