In the 1940s Rene Spitz did a study on infant hospitalism. A total of 91 infants were placed in the Foundling Home located just outside of the United States. For the first three months of the infants’ lives, they were breastfed by their mothers in the Foundling Home. If an infant’s mother was not available, one of the other mothers would also breastfeed that infant. The infant’s enjoyed the affection given by their mothers during this initial three month period. After three months, all of the infants were separated from their mothers. The infants were cared for by nurses and received high quality physical and medical care. Each nurse was in charge of eight to twelve infants, making it almost impossible for the infants to have any need except for the physical/medical need met. As Spitz (1965) states, “To put it drastically, they got approximately one tenth of the normal affective supplies provided in the usual mother-child relationship” (p. 279). In other words, no love or social support was given to these infants.
It wasn’t long before a rapid decline was seen in the infants’ development. Just after three months of the separation, the infants’ motor development had completely halted, and they became totally passive. They’d stopped crying. The infants just lied on their backs and did not have the motivation to roll over or sit up. “The face became vacuous, eye coordination defective, the expression often imbecile. When mobility reappeared after a while, it took the form of spasmus mutans in some of the children; others showed bizarre finger movements reminiscent of decerebrate or athetotic movements (Spitz, 1945a)” (Spitz, 1965, p. 279). Sadly, these infants were failing to thrive, and were severely stunted in all aspects of development.
By the end of the children’s second year of life, those who had survived, their development was “forty-five percent of the normal” (Spitz, 1965, p. 279). This was after they had been placed back into loving homes. These children had become severely disabled both physically and mentally. Even the children who survived and were checked on again at age four, the majority still could not sit unassisted, walk, or talk (Spitz, 1965). It was a horrific example of how social-emotional depravation severely affects infants. Many of the infants did not survive. The death rates of these children were extremely high compared with other children in institutions in which loving care was provided. According to Spitz (1965), “Of the 91 children originally observed in the Foundling Home, 34 had died by the end of the second year; 57 survived” (p. 281). It was speculated by Spitz that the death rate may have been even higher due to the fact he lost touch with some of these children after the study. It was also noted by Spitz that only two of the infants died of disease (Spitz, 1965).


I can't believe even in the 40s he was allowed to turn 91 healthy babies into retards to further his research. Anyone else got some horrible studies to share?