James Prescott notes that scientific evidence has been building since Bowlby’s time of how the attachment of the infant to its mother lies at the core of our humanity. Sarah Hrdy writes that it was the mother that continuously carried the infant in skin-to-skin contact, nestled into the heat of her body, being rocked and soothed by the rhythm of her heartbeat. The infant’s entire world was its mother.
Hrdy notes that no wild monkey or ape mother has ever been observed harming her offspring or vice-versa. Where has this violence emerged from in humans? Prescott notes there are multiple causes. Bottle-feeding, he claims, may be the worst invention of the 20th century as it deprives the infant not just of physical nutrients but also essential sensory-emotional nutrients that only be obtained through the breast: Touch, the taste of the mother’s body, smell, movement. These experiences then form the foundation for intimacy, pleasure and love of women throughout the lifespan. Breast-feeding bonding has been shown to reduce infant mortality and suicide. 77% of cultures where weaning age is two and half years or greater have absent or low suicide rates.
Bowlby warned of vested interests in the institutional care of children, but today, Prescott notes, children spend an increasing amount of time in day care away from their mothers. The village it takes to raise a child includes many mothers. The rise of the nuclear family and single parents has resulted in parental impoverishment in the last 100 years.
Since Bowlby’s time, other studies have documented how failure of maternal-infant bonding places nations at risk of depressive, drug-addictive and violent behaviours. Cross-cultural studies of tribal cultures have confirmed Bowlby’s claim that maternal love in infancy and childhood is as important for mental health as vitamins are for physical health. Birth complications in combination with maternal rejection at age one predict violent behaviour at age eighteen. Pain and pleasure in early life, writes Prescott, determines whether we follow a path of peace, harmony and happiness or alienation, violence and depression. What mothers are to children, so will man be to man, wrote Montagu.
An environment of sensory-emotional deprivation, says Prescott, has destroyed the environment of evolutionary adaptedness in which we evolved. This leads to species extinction as there is no successful adaptation to a violent environment.