At the May meeting, Seminars for Psychoanalysts will host Stephen J. Suomi of the Laboratory of Comparative Ethology, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Bethesda, Maryland. For many years Suomi has studied the impact of early separation and different types of rearing on infant rhesus monkeys. He has persuasively demonstrated that early experiences in attachment relationships are highly relevant for subsequent social and emotional development.

Along with Harlow, Suomi discovered the “therapeutic action” of normal infant monkeys on adult monkeys crippled from infancy by isolation. In addition, he has made observations on the mutual influence of temperament and specific types of mothering. For example, he has shown that a temperament conducive to depression under conditions of deficient mothering disposes an animal to accelerated development when it is raised by an especially good mother and leads to unusual success when, in addition, the animal in later life finds an opportunity to bond transiently with a pair of older adults. Suomi also observed that highreactive infants are more likely to be influenced by maternal style than are low-reactive infants, a difference with long-term ramifications.

Although Suomi acknowledges differences between his rhesus monkeys and human infants, he argues compellingly that the general principles derived from his data apply to human beings. Specifically, he suggests that early experiences that deviate greatly from the norm are those most likely to have long-term impact, that the most dramatic long-term effects will most likely be seen under conditions of stress, and that substantial individual differences may exist in how specific early experiences affect later behavioral and emotional development.

Glen O. Gabbard