Reversibility of Pathological Fixations Associated with Maternal Deprivation in Infancy

Many writers have stressed the irreversibility of the pathological effect of early maternal deprivation. Most of these base their prognosis on their work with institutionalized children. Few differentiate between presence or absence of mental pathology in the mother; nor were other variables in the total mother-child relationship considered in relation to the prognosis. Thus, Bender (1947) states, "Once the defect is created, i.e., through maternal deprivation, it cannot be corrected." She recommends that "the therapy should be protective and should aim at fostering a dependency relationship" (italics mine). Goldfarb (1943), (1944) placed the optimum age for reversibility of maternal deprivation before six months, not later than nine months, and considered it useless after two and a half years. He goes on to say that he never saw even one example of significant favorable response to treatment by "traditional methods of child psychiatry" (italics mine). Levy (1937) is one of the early investigators to hypothesize that probably each category of maternal deprivation produces a different syndrome. Kanner (1949) was equally pessimistic of the prognosis of his group of maternally deprived children whose maternal deprivation was related to their innate inability to form contacts. He considered the pathological effects unresponsive to therapy. In 1951 Bowlby related the pathological effect of maternal deprivation to the age of the child and the duration