Article ID: CBB000951597

The Father of Ethology and the Foster Mother of Ducks: Konrad Lorenz as Expert on Motherhood (2009)

unapi

Konrad Lorenz's popularity in the United States has to be understood in the context of social concern about the mother-infant dyad after World War II. Child analysts David Levy, René Spitz, Margarethe Ribble, Therese Benedek, and John Bowlby argued that many psychopathologies were caused by a disruption in the mother-infant bond. Lorenz extended his work on imprinting to humans and argued that maternal care was also instinctual. The conjunction of psychoanalysis and ethology helped shore up the view that the mother-child dyad rests on an instinctual basis and is the cradle of personality formation. Amidst the Cold War emphasis on rebuilding an emotionally sound society, these views received widespread attention. Thus Lorenz built on the social relevance of psychoanalysis, while analysts gained legitimacy by drawing on the scientific authority of biology. Lorenz's work was central in a rising discourse that blamed the mother for emotional degeneration and helped him recast his eugenic fears in a socially acceptable way.

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Authors & Contributors
Vicedo, Marga
Munz, Tania
Dewsbury, Donald A.
Hugo Viciana
Klassen, Anna
Gray, Liz
Concepts
Animal behavior
Animal psychology
Psychology
Ethology
Discipline formation
Zoology
Time Periods
20th century
20th century, late
20th century, early
19th century
Places
United States
Germany
Guinea
Japan
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