WHY FREUD WAS WRONG WHEN IT CAME TO DEPENDENCY THEORY

   Sigmund Freud, who is theoretician and the father of psychoanalysis, was a Viennese doctor and clinician. He made numerous studies on child development and according to them, children go through a series of psychosexual stages which lead to the development of the adult personality. These stages are the Oral Stage, which comprises the first year of a baby’s life, the Anal Stage, the Phallic Stage, the Latent Stage, and the Genital Stage. In the Oral Stage, babies are totally and necessarily depend on their mothers because they fulfill the basic needs of the baby such as bathing, feeding or wiping. As a result of this, the baby moves from a state of unpleasant biological need to satiated biological satisfaction. At this point, Freud thought that the dependency of babies on their mothers was about the indispensable function of the mother in the baby’s life. But he interpreted these essential needs as physical needs. This interpretation didn't consider the importance of a mother’s touch on a baby and led to the acceptance of the attachment theory instead of the dependency theory in the coming years.

    The psychologists who justify attachment theory believe that the power of the caregiver’s touch is as important as the basic needs of babies and it has a significant influence on child development. In the 1950s, Harry Harlow made an experiment on rhesus monkeys to contribute to the importance of caregiving, affection, and social relationships in life. He separated infant monkeys from their mothers

a few hours after birth; he put the infants in a place where there were two kinds of surrogate monkey mother machines which dispensed milk and one of the machine monkeys was covered with a soft terry cloth. Then, he put the monkeys in a room with the machines to see their preference. Infant monkeys chose the monkey with the soft terry cloth and milk. Therewithal, Harlow made a critical difference in the experiment to understand the necessity of attachment; he equipped one of the monkey machines just with milk while another machine was covered with a soft terry cloth. At this point, the responses of monkeys clearly indicated the significance of attachment in development. The result of the second experiment was astonishing. The monkeys preferred the monkey machine which was covered with soft cloth even though the other monkey machine had milk which is a requisite for his life. Consequently, psychologists and doctors accepted the importance of attachment. With this in mind, the experiment has been judged by some people because of its ethical issues. This experiment proved that the orphanage system has harmful effects on the child’s development and needs to be changed. Today, most of the countries are encouraging adoption instead of the orphanage system and children become healthier physically and mentally.

     In 1944, American psychologists made an unethical experiment to see the results of the shortage of attachment on humans. In order to do that, they used 20 new-born infants. During the experiment, doctors, and psychologists fulfilled the main needs of babies. They fed the babies sufficiently, gave them a comfortable place to sleep and kept their bodies clean. However, they didn't contact the babies directly to prevent the sense of feeling. In order to do that, they used plastic gloves if they had to touch them. Psychologists were planning to continue this experiment for two years but just after 4 months, unexpected outcomes compelled them to interrupt the experiment: the babies started to die. Before the death of the babies, experimenters observed that the babies were becoming unresponsive to the person who fulfilled their needs in contrast to their response at the beginning of the experiment; they weren't crying at all.  The experimenters tried to bring the babies back to life by touching. Unfortunately, it didn't work.

   As a result of this experiment, psychologists accepted the necessity of attachment and interpreted this need as an essential factor in babies’ life. Therewithal, the unethical side of the experiment has been judged by many people but the reason for the applicability of the experiment was about the conditions in those days; the experiment was made during the Second World War and the babies were probably obtained in return for money.

      In conclusion, the importance and necessity of attachment is accepted, and it has been proved that the results of the deficiency of attachment on babies can lead to serious issues in an individual’s life. Today, many psychologists have experienced this situation in many cases. Through these experiences and experiments, we have learned that we are not depending on our caregivers just because they satisfy our needs, we develop an emotional relationship , and need them as humans.

                                                                                                         SUEDA DİNÇ

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