Love at Goon Park: Harry Harlow and the Science of Affection

by Deborah Blum

In this meticulously researched and masterfully written book, Pulitzer Prize-winner Deborah Blum examines the history of love through the lens of its strangest unsung a brilliant, fearless, alcoholic psychologist named Harry Frederick Harlow. Pursuing the idea that human affection could be understood, studied, even measured, Harlow (1905-1981) arrived at his conclusions by conducting research-sometimes beautiful, sometimes horrible-on the primates in his University of Wisconsin laboratory. Paradoxically, his darkest experiments may have the brightest legacy, for by studying "neglect" and its life-altering consequences, Harlow confirmed love's central role in shaping not only how we feel but also how we think. His work sparked a psychological revolution. The more children experience affection, he discovered, the more curious they become about the Love makes people smarter. The biography of both a man and an idea, The Measure of Love is a powerful and at times disturbing narrative that will forever alter our understanding of human relationships.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Science, Biography, History, Relationships, Love

364 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 2, 2002

About the author

Deborah Blum is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author.

As a science writer for the Sacramento Bee, Blum (rhymes with gum) wrote a series of articles examining the professional, ethical, and emotional conflicts between scientists who use animals in their research and animal rights activists who oppose that research. Titled "The Monkey Wars", the series won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting.

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's hard to believe that less than 100 years ago, psychologists believed that affection between parents and children was unnecessary, and recommended that the best way to raise children was to touch them and coddle them as little as possible. The behaviorist B.F. Skinner actually built a box to raise his young daughter Debbie in, with a window and filtered air and regular times when she could emerge to play or eat meals.

Harry Harlow, a primate researcher at the University of Wisconsin, though hardly remembered today, was one of the people who changed all that, and brought science into line with what, as he put it, mothers had known all along.

He did it by showing how necessary motherly love and affection were for rhesus monkeys in his lab. His most famous experiment involved inventing two kinds of surrogate moms for baby monkeys -- a cloth one and a wire one -- and showing that even without the interaction of a breathing, living mom, the babies would cling desperately to the cloth moms, even if the wire moms held their milk.

Deborah Blum, a professor at the University of Wisconsin and Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer, has written a marvelous biography of Harlow in this book, but more than that, she has illuminated how animal researchers paved the way for other psychologists to champion the importance of touching, loving and paying attention to others in a social network.

One reason Harry Harlow remains so little known today is that in his passion to understand all the ramifications of family affection, he also explored its dark side. Later in his career, he put some monkey babies in pits with sides so steep they couldn't scramble out of them, to see what effects isolation from other monkeys would have on them, and he invented some surrogate mothers who seemed cruel, including one that would thrust blunted metal prongs out of its body to dislodge its tiny charges. He also was sarcastic and sharp tongued, and even though in his professional life he championed women researchers, he didn't react well to criticism of his work by the nascent women's liberation movement in the 70s, some of whose leaders felt his research was designed to relegate women to staying at home to raise children.

Blum doesn't shy away from Harry's warts, including the way that he ignored his own children to dedicate himself to his work. But she treats him sympathetically because of his seminal role in demonstrating that the early experiences of infants -- and their absolutely intense need to be touched, held, loved and supported -- were essential to healthy physical and mental development later on.

A really, really good book.

[AB · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the very, very few books that I can say not only changed my life, but did so in such a way that I can provide evidence to back up my statement.

[Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in April 2010. If you ever took psychology or sociology, you probably learned about the experiment with the baby monkeys and the cloth mothers and the wire mothers. This is a popular scientific biography of the scientist who conceived that experiment.

I'd call it a must-read for anyone who works with children (or non-human primates), or who is a people-watcher. Also for anyone who has even mild curiosity about psychology as a science. If you ever took a basic science class, this reviews a lot of the basic early studies which you learned about, with increased background detail. (Not just the wire mother/cloth mother studies, but also ones like the Little Albert experiment.)

It talks a little about how babies respond to faces, which I thought was interesting. (I've noticed that crying babies will sometimes stop crying when they notice a face to look at -- even if it's a complete stranger's face.) But the underlying theme is how important nurturing is in the formative years of primate species.

Reading this made me think of The Chosen, and wonder if Potok based Danny's difficulties with trying to learn about psychology and the human mind by studying rats on a real life story. Namely, that of Abraham Maslow -- this thesis, and a few other results, suggested that Maslow was somewhat critical of the use of rats to learn about humans.

[V · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing, amazing book. Biographies of academicians is this fun new genre I've stepped into. Seeing how a young person's interest becomes a topic of research, and how they work on traditional and arguably mundane topics in the early years, until they get "hooked" onto a particularly important question, whose premise is often against the whims of the establishment, and if they manage to win that war of ideas, a question whose answer becomes their defining contribution to the field and beyond. It's pretty fertile territory for great stories - enough ideas, gossip and drama.

I've been quoting this book a bit too much...worth a read

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love at Goon Park was very interesting while also very frustrating and incredibly flawed. In the preface, Deborah Blum discusses writing an earlier book (The Monkey Wars) that angered people who knew Harry Harlow so much that many of them were wary of ever speaking to her again. She then launches into an entire book on Harry Harlow, much of it quite positive or at least minimally critical of his experiments and of him as a person. It's not till the epilogue that she shares any of the criticisms against him or offers any information that indicates that she might not have been unbiased in her narrative.

With that in mind, Love at Goon Park was still an interesting look at the state of psychology in the first half of the twentieth century and the changes that came about, both intellectually in the field of psychology and practically in hospitals and homes, because of Harry Harlow's studies on affection and touch. Harlow focused specifically on primate research and the relationship between mothers and children, and many of his experiments sound by today's standards to be unnecessarily cruel - raising babies with artificial mothers made of cloth or wire, or putting monkeys in total isolation and depriving them of any contact with others. The epilogue wrestles a tiny bit with the question of whether and how we can justify cruelty in experiments if it results in a better understanding of our world, but otherwise the book does not take a critical or questioning stance at all. Likewise, the book also describes Harlow's personal life - his difficulties in his marriages and his failings as a father - but doesn't dwell at all on the irony of the psychologist who studies love and the importance of touch while completely neglecting to interact with his children.

I learned quite a bit from reading Love at Goon Park and so I don't regret reading it, but I do think that the author felt an obligation to speak positively about Harry Harlow in order to gain access to the people she wanted to interview, and that the book was not honest with its readers as a result. The epilogue hints at how a more evenhanded treatment of Harry Harlow might have played out, but that is not the book we received, and I really can't recommend it as a result.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this for a psychology class and found it absolutely fascinating. I liked the detailed description from Publisher's Weekly, so here it is:

In this surprisingly compelling book, Blum (The Monkey Wars) reveals that many of the child-rearing truths we now take for granted infants need parental attention; physical contact is related to emotional growth and cognitive development were shunned by the psychological community of the 1950s. As Blum shows, Freudian and behavioral psychologists argued for decades that babies were drawn to their mothers only as a source of milk, motivated by the instinctual drive for sustenance, and that children could be harmed by too much affection.

Harry Harlow's experiments, Blum finds in this deeply sympathetic investigation of his life and work, changed all this, conclusively demonstrating that infant monkeys bond emotionally with a specific "mother" a dummy figure made of cloth even if it is not a source of food. The experiments also revealed, astonishingly enough, that puzzle-solving monkeys who were not rewarded with food actually performed better than those who were rewarded, leading him to conclude that baby primates and by extension, baby children are motivated by a range of emotions, including curiosity, affection and wonder.

[zoe jade · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love begins at the beginning; perhaps no one does it better, or needs it more, than a child.

Harlow's work is of a kind that proves the efficacy and importance of Psychology; a field that has long since battled to be taken seriously--psychologists such as Harlow are among its pioneers. Harlow's name is one familiar to any Psychology major, but this book was a labor of love--one that rang so beautifully true to me I will forever count it among the best non-fiction books I've read.

That it was once a long-held belief--even into the 20th century--that children should be raised with clinical detachment rather than warmth and affection will never cease to shock me. The idea that nurturing a child could somehow weaken them, spoil them beyond saving, and ruin their futures is baffling. Yet, this very mindset makes Harlow's work all the more significant, as he set out to challenge and ultimately dismantle it--and he succeeded, despite fierce skepticism and resistance from established psychologists who saw his ideas as unscientific and absurd.

What made this book so compelling--beyond my own interest in the subject--is Blum's ability to give life and personality to Harlow. She doesn't shy away from exposing his many flaws and often detrimental obsession to his work, but she also highlights his dry humor, inspirational persistence, and heart-warming support of those working in his lab. More than a mere exploration of science, this is an exploration of Harlow, of affection as a whole, and of what it means to be human. This book was deeply moving in all ways, I loved it very much.

[Arimo · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent and interesting book about psychologist Harry Harlow and his monkey research. Thorough research shines through all over the book, and Love at Goon Park is full of interesting anecdotes and minor details that makes the subjects come to life.

I'm giving the book very strong four stars. The biggest (but still minor) issue I had with the book was the length of the chapters and paragraphs. Sometimes, if I had trouble concentrating, I had to read some paragraphs multiple times to understand what I was reading.

These problems mostly occurred near the end of the book. Love at Goon Park loses some momentum when it finishes the story of Harry Harlow and starts to tell about the things that have happened in the field after his death. The ending is still interesting, but it's also quite heavy reading as it isn't as clearly focused as the earlier parts of the book.

[dejah_thoris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book that described in detail Harlow's experiments and the controversy they were trying to overcome. I found it especially interesting that Blum originally wrote an animal rights article against Harlow, which resulted in many contacts who wanted to speak to her solely to correct her misconceptions. Some of this critique is given in the final chapter of the book with Harlow's rebuttals but the majority focuses on his attempt to overcome reliance on rats as subjects and to see relationships as a significant component of psychology.

[Pancha · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting book. While it mostly concentrates on Harlow, it does also give you a sense of what other scientists were doing in the field, both those who agreed with Harlow and those who disagreed.

[Cathy Faye · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having a weird love-hate relationship with this book...

[Marsmannix · Rating 4 out of 5]

fascinating for anyone familiar with Harry Harlow's work with those poor little orphan monkeys

[Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Top read. Lovely mix of narrative and psychology practice.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

The nature of love is about paying attention to the people who matter, about still giving when you are too tired to give.

[Sarah Galvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an absolute monster.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

20th century thought on animals was that animals were simple, brainless even. Exposed to a stimulus, the animal would react. They were no more than response machines, trying to satisfy their basic needs of food and shelter. This thinking carried over to scientific opinion on children. Children had no emotional or intellectual capacities. And in fact, excessive parental affection could not only increase the chance of infecting your child with germs, but also interfere with the child's normal developmental process.

Through the power of his carefully thought out research with monkeys, his lightning wit, and outspoken demeanor, Harry Harlow upended these popular beliefs of his time, dramatically altering how people viewed both animals and child-rearing.

Love at Goon Park tracks Harlow's journey from a small boy with a passion for poetry to the man with a lab full of monkeys, relentlessly pursuing life's deepest issues; the power of love and relationships on mankind.

The story's a great read about one of the pioneers of a new era in psychological research, one that respects and highlights the importance of emotions and relationships both in a child's life and society at large. And Harlow makes for an interesting character. He is crass, but honest. He champions motherhood, but ends up reviled by feminists. He illuminates love's importance, especially during childhood, but is a flawed family man himself. He possesses an indomitable spirit, but struggles with alcoholism and depression later in his life.

Recommend to any science-lover, but also to anyone who needs reminding why cuddling is important.

[Charlotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first half of the book dragged a little for me, but the second half, which was filled with more research was extremely informative and riveting (if not also dark).

I understood by the end of this why people stopped talking about the research after Harlow passed. It's disturbing to remember that humans thought that it would be OK to do these kinds of things to animals just to understand things which we now take for granted.

Blum really set up what the behaviorist parenting-advice looked like at the time that Harlow was doing his research at the beginning of the book though, and how that began to change for the better after his research came out and he so liked to flout the results in non-clinical + attention grabbing language.

I saw by the end that Blum also felt like it was the least we could do for the animals that suffered terribly in these experiments to share what happened to them, and what we learned from them...

That being said, I would definitely say TW for abuse and rape. There are some pretty horrifying things that these researchers were a part of and witnessed. I did not expect that in a book entitled The Science of Affection.

I would also say that I think Blum did a good job of depicting Harlow as the complicated individual that he was—not fully idealizing or demonizing him.

[Marianne Meyers · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book fascinating, albeit difficult at times. These studies would never be done today but at that time, they were groundbreaking. No one had done research with monkeys, only rats up to that point. The belief in the early to mid part of the 20th century was that children left in a clean environment with regular meals would be just fine, they didn't need anyone else. Many people felt babies should not be held, it would make them weak. Harlow's studies with rhesus monkeys were in response to this and his discoveries are what we understand today - babies need to be held and nurtured and they need to be socialized when they are young. Without these basics, there is emotional damage and trauma. Harlow ran an empowering environment and was innovative in his research, but let's face it, putting a few baby monkeys through this is torture. The fact that Harlow was an eccentric person who dealt with alcoholism and depression at times and said a lot of things during the Women's Lib era to bait people make him very unsympathetic. The author has done excellent research, I think this is an important book.

[Charlize · Rating 5 out of 5]

read this for my psych honors seminar class and it was really good. it made me think about a lot things, not just mother-infant relationships but love in general. harry harlow (and the other scientists in this book), in some ways, inspire me; how much they believed in their work, no matter how controversial it was. the beliefs these scientists held so strongly revolutionized the field of psychology, and our society’s norms and values surrounding love. we don’t give them enough credit and don’t ask ourselves, “why do we think about love the way we do today?”. yes, these experiments are unethical (and if i was alive in the mid twentieth century as a scientist, i would never ever bring myself to do any of it because of how cruel and gruesome they were), it brought about change on how we think about our relationships and the importance of receiving and reciprocating love. love is essential to our development and evolution. love is essential to our species as a whole.

[Christiana Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, this was a well-researched book that explored important issues in psychology research and the nature of the parent-child bond. Harry Harlow's work is seminal in the field of developmental psychology, and this narrative of his life and work contained a lot of information in addition to his work with baby monkeys and cloth mothers that put Harry's personality and research into context. Parts of the book I flew through, while others seemed to drag a bit, and I think I would have enjoyed it more if it was purely pleasure reading (rather than an assignment with a deadline). Still, it's an thoughtful book exploring an influential time in experimental psychology that made me understand the foundations of my own work better and ask some hard questions about psychology research, parenting, and ethics.

[Isaac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having read two of Deborah Blum's books now I feel like she is a competent, though not particularly remarkable, science/history writer. A little formulaic, a bit prone to meandering digressions that I am not sure enhance the narrative, but overall she explains the science well and does a good cradle to grave character treatment, and I like her conclusions where she talks about the impacts and echos of the science (and in this case ethics).

That said, Blum chooses some real good subjects. I've come across references to Harry Harlow's work in many other books and it was real fun to get some depth into who he was and the context for his work. There was also an added level of joy in the hometown nature of the story living and working so close to the Henry Vilas Zoo, Harlow Lab and 600 N. Park itself.

[Justin Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just an utterly transformational, deeply challenging work of nonfiction, about how love and attachment slowly became something worthy of study under Harry Harlow and his two wives, Clara and Margaret, plus their preserve of monkeys. A book as murky as it is radiant--never afraid to get sentimental or to rip sentiment off like a scab, equal parts tortured biography and searching scientific text. If this doesn't change some of the base assumptions you have about love, curiosity, danger, scarcity, the nuclear family, and abuse -- if it doesn't shake you in church and at school and in the lab and at the ballot box, if it doesn't reinforce how hard and special it is to simply be alive -- I'd be surprised. A luminous flare. Please read.

[Max Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was fantastic! Blum does an excellent job of peeling back each layer of Harry Harlow's exceedingly complex character, and, in doing so, showers the reader with the academic politics of the 1950s.

This bio touches on the importance of touch and affection, the infuriating misogyny of the time and the concomitant shattered dreams of countless young female researchers, the ins and outs of child rearing (and how the emerging field of psychology hurt and healed families), depression, animal rights, and the wonderful world of primates.

Blum's writing is witty, hilarious, dark, and engaging through and through. What a great read!

[VJK · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very scientific book so it is not a page-turner but is very interesting and unbelievable that scientists actually believed at one point that love wasn’t important in child rearing. This is about Harry Harlow and his experiments with monkeys to mimic humans in the importance of how love matters, that social connection counts. Relationships are important. Only Godless scientists could have been so ignorant and blind. It is disturbing that so many experiments had to and continue to be performed on this subject.

[Ruxandra Tihon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the book and wish I would have read it sooner. It validated my instincts and deep believe that a child needs affection and constant care. It’s weird that after all this time and research, people still think it’s okay not to hold or rock a crying baby, let him cry to sleep and avoid looking into his eyes.
I also liked reading about the controversy around Harlow, though I disagree with his methods I understand the need to do what he has done.
Very well documented, the author did a great job and it’s an easy read.

[Vicky Ensworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is love real? Is love necessary for life? This is the story of the scientist who set out to answer these questions. Can love be defined? Measured? What happens to babies who do not receive love from birth? This biographical piece is as interesting as the scientific work presented. The book is an easy and interesting read. Even though it is a scientific study, the story is moving and enlightening. This is a story that should never be forgotten. You will be glad you read it. I read it more than once.

[Laurel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harlow's work is some of the most groundbreaking research in shaping the way in which we understand emotional development. Blum does a solid job of narrating the progress of this research, and the ways in which it has shaped psychology and medical research today. I would have liked deeper examination of Harry himself, and the ways in which he was unable to apply his research to his own relationships.

[Barbara Gorman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating research on mother love...

It's hard to believe that scientists encouraged us to ignore our parenting instincts and all but eliminate nurturing contact with our babies. Harry Harlow, controversial and brilliant reinvigorates healthy mother/infant parenting, with his monkey research into mother love. A valuable read.

[Sharine Cheah · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great discovery in psychology by Harry Harlow about love and attachment style at young age by years of observations and research on young apes and monkeys.

I find it's shocking and unbelievable that hugging and cuddling, showing affection to our young babies were considered the worst methods in bringing up young human beings in the 50s by scientists and doctors. 💔

[liliana ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 ⭐️ if you are a psychology student, you’ve heard about harry harlow and the monkey love experiments multiple times, but this was a great way of putting it while also providing context on harry’s life and the influential psychological theories and figures that played a role into his choice to explore a topic that was not deemed scientific at the time.