Scientific American: The Loveless Man ...

Just in time for Valentines day.

"What is missing in a monkey raised with a cloth mother? In one raised with a living mother but no peers? In complete isolation? Can "therapists" (younger, unthreatening and highly socialized monkeys) repair the broken animal produced by isolation? What kind of mothers do isolated monkeys become (are they often violently abusive)? This period produced a horrific finding: if an infant is punished for hugging a surrogate mother (with, for example, a jet of air shot from the surrogate's torso), the infant hugs more, not less. This violated every tenet of behaviorist reinforcement theory but is obvious to anyone who loves the wrong person."