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This monograph is the result of a brilliantly conceived and executed effort to delineate the specific psychological deficits produced by maternal deprivation. Seventy-five infants who were placed in institutions in the first month of life and remained there for about a year were the subjects of the study. Fourteen of the children were observed at various times after their subsequent placement in foster homes. Most of the significant data were gathered by application of the Gesell and Hetzer-Wolfe Baby Tests, used not only to obtain quantitative data and profiles in various areas of development, but also as a 'structured and observational setup' from which clinical observations could be made. Consistently and with great clarity these data are compared with the data on normal development obtained by the same investigators using the same procedures with infants reared in families. To make this comparison meaningful, the authors present for each set of data a condensed review of the underlying psychoanalytic theory in terms of drive and ego development, especially as interrelated with object relations. Psychoanalytic theory determined the focus and direction of observation.
The findings constitute another, but this time exhaustively and precisely documented, demonstration of the vital importance of the mother in the earliest years of life and will not be surprising to psychoanalysts. However it is impressive to learn from direct observations of pathological development that deviations occur so early, so extensively, and in so many unforeseen areas. In the absence of the mother the fundamental pathways for development are missing. Denied