Hospitalism

Spitz, René A.

doi:10.1080/00797308.1946.11823540

Cited by 330 publications

(26 citation statements)

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“…The alternative of not engaging with their mothers at all is a nonviable option. Severe or chronic social disengagement is a psychic disaster because infants’ self-organizing processes are limited, and eventually they will lose organization and dissipate (Nelson et al, 2007; Spitz, 1946). In making these comparisons, we are not asserting the “normalcy” of interactions between depressed mothers and their infants but rather that the process of meaning-making during infant–caregiver interaction is similar in different contexts, be they social games, cultural interactions, or depressed exchanges.…”

Section: The Emergence Of Mental Health Problemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infants' meaning-making and the development of mental health problems.

Tronick

Beeghly

2011

American Psychologist

293

196

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We argue that infant meaning-making processes are a central mechanism governing both typical and pathological outcomes. Infants, as open dynamic systems, must constantly garner information to increase their complexity and coherence. They fulfill this demand by making nonverbal “meaning”—affects, movements, representations—about themselves in relation to the world and themselves into a “biopsychosocial state of consciousness,” which shapes their ongoing engagement with the world. We focus on the operation of the infant–adult communication system, a dyadic, mutually regulated system that scaffolds infants’ engagement with the world of people, things, and themselves, and consequently their meaning-making. We argue that infant mental health problems emerge when the meanings infants make in the moment, which increase their complexity and coherence and may be adaptive in the short run, selectively limit their subsequent engagement with the world and, in turn, the growth of their state of consciousness in the long run. When chronic and iterative, these altered meanings can interfere with infants’ successful development and heighten their vulnerability to pathological outcomes. Cultural variations in meaning-making and implications for clinical practice are discussed.

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Section: The Emergence Of Mental Health Problemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infants' meaning-making and the development of mental health problems.

Tronick

Beeghly

2011

American Psychologist

293

196

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…While the early studies that informed Bowlby and Bronfenbrenner’s ideas (e.g., Goldfarb, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1947, 1955; Spitz, 1945a, 1945b) called attention to the potentially damaging and lasting effects of residing in a depriving environment in the early years of life, many of these studies were methodologically weak; the institutional environments were not often described in much (or any) detail, and it was sometimes unclear how many children were tested, what assessments were used and at what ages (MacLean, 2003). More recently, the research base has expanded, and while some methodological problems persist, the field has advanced to a point where a number of conclusions can be stated with some certainty.…”

Section: Post-institutionalized Childrenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age at Adoption from Institutional Care as a Window into the Lasting Effects of Early Experiences

Julian

2013

Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev

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One of the major questions of human development is how early experience impacts the course of development years later. Children adopted from institutional care experience varying levels of deprivation in their early life followed by qualitatively better care in an adoptive home, providing a unique opportunity to study the lasting effects of early deprivation and its timing. The effects of age at adoption from institutional care are discussed for multiple domains of social and behavioral development within the context of several prominent developmental hypotheses about the effects of early deprivation (cumulative effects, experience-expectant developmental programming, and experience-adaptive developmental programming). Age at adoption effects are detected in a majority of studies, particularly when children experienced global deprivation and were assessed in adolescence. For most outcomes, institutionalization beyond a certain age is associated with a step-like increase in risk for lasting social and behavioral problems, with the step occurring at an earlier age for children who experienced more severe levels of deprivation. Findings are discussed in terms of their concordance and discordance with our current hypotheses, and speculative explanations for the findings are offered.

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“…On this account the syndrome became known as psychosocial dwarfism and also as reversible hyposomatotropinism. Eventually it became evident that the same syndrome had earlier been known as marasmusfailure to thrive-and in the now wellknown studies of Spitz (1946), hospitalism. Subsequently it was related specifically not simply to deprivation and neglect but also to active child abuse (Money 1977).…”

Section: Psychosocial or Abuse Dwarfismmentioning

confidence: 91%

Child Abuse: Growth Failure, IQ Deficit, and Learning Disability

Money

1982

J Learn Disabil

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Behavior that has been criminalized makes criminals not only of those who practice it but also of professionals who fail to report their knowledge of it. Professionals have invented the bastard science of victimology in which, by focusing on the victims and handing the offenders over to the law, they miss the scientific opportunity to discover the cause and prevention of the offense. Evidence of child abuse and neglect as a primary cause of permanent IQ impairment and learning disability, though long known, has been largely disregarded in favor of hereditary and quasineurological theories of etiology. There is a syndrome, namely abuse dwarfism (also known as psychosocial dwarfism), in which growth in stature and pubertal physique, growth in intelligence, and growth and maturation of behavior all are retarded and even permanently impaired in response to child abuse and neglect. Early rescue into a nonabusive environment permits catch-up growth, whereas delayed rescue hinders it, with consequent persistent IQ impairment and learning disability.

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Hospitalism

Cited by 330 publications

References 0 publications

Infants' meaning-making and the development of mental health problems.

Infants' meaning-making and the development of mental health problems.

Age at Adoption from Institutional Care as a Window into the Lasting Effects of Early Experiences

Child Abuse: Growth Failure, IQ Deficit, and Learning Disability

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