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Summary: Looking at love
Review: "Love At Goon Park" is a fascinating look at a man and his work. Deborah Blum provides the reader with an extensive and sobering background before exploring Harry Harlow's research. Did you know that as recently as the 1950s, psychologists were trying to convince parents that too much cuddling and "love" were bad for their children? Harlow, with his revolutionary experiments on baby monkeys, was bucking the conventional wisdom of his time. He was trying to say that mother's love mattered, that touch mattered, that affection mattered. His peers didn't want to hear this, but Harlow's research finally forced the profession to listen. Blum's writing is never dry, never boring. She writes with amazing flair and humanity. You'll feel that you are getting to know this person, Harry Harlow. Even more, you'll feel you are there in the lab with Harlow and his graduate students, waiting to see how the baby monkeys will react to the latest experiment. What will we learn? Will anyone listen? Blum cares, and you'll care too. You can't help but feel for the monkeys when you read this book. And Blum doesn't gloss over the issue of abuse, especially mental, that was visited on our primate cousins in the name of science. "Goon Park" takes an unflinching look at Harry Harlow, warts and all. I think her treatment of all the issues was fair and balanced. I highly recommend "Love At Goon Park." It's well-written, interesting and important.
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Summary: Important lessons that must not be forgotten
Review: A very well written book, telling the story of a man, and of the revolution he caused in psychology. There is a lot of irony in this story. If Harry Harlow's experiments strike us as intolerably cruel now, that is due in large part because we know the results of those experiments. There are important lessons here for present and future parents, researchers, and activists. And even if you don't fall into one of those categories, it's still a fascinating story that is well worth reading.
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Summary: What a Disappointment
Review: Blum's biography of Harlow does an excellent job of examining the man and the scientist, "warts and all." Yes, it's unflinching in its descriptions of the experiments performed on macaques showing the effects of maternal deprivation; yes, it's unflinching on showing the psychology of the man who performed these experiments and the sad effects his psychological predispositions had on his personal life. Poor monkeys! Poor Harlow! But never fear; Blum is here to provide us with reassurance: it all had to be that way - really, it did. True, the experiments sound really nasty; but hey, that's just how things were done in those days. Really, it's all okay, in the long run, because now, even though we still musn't question the basic scientific premises regarding the necessity of animal research, at least we don't have to perform those particular nasty experiments anymore; and really - really - Harlow was, in his own perverted way, something of a hero. Even animal rights activists have cause to be thankful to him: because of him, we now have a convenient enemy to vilify, not to mention that desperately needed scientific proof positive that monkeys are more complex than we once believed, and hence deserve a little extra consideration. Thank you, Harry Harlow. Thank you, Deborah Blum, for puffing him back up again after the deflated view you left us with in The Monkey Wars. See people? He really wasn't such a bad guy after all. All you have to do is look at him in just the right way. . . .
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Summary: Couldn't put it down...
Review: For a biography / psychology book, I was pleasantly surprised by just how readible this book is (once you start reading, plan on being glued to it until you're finished). A fascinating slice of history, it's useful and insightful reading if you're a parent (or planning on becoming one), or if you're interested in the roots of the controversy over medical research with primates, or if you're just looking for tips on what makes humans tick. Well worth the read if only to put B. F. Skinner's experiments and theories into a frightening human perspective.
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Summary: All teachers should read this, too.
Review: I am one of the millions of people in the USA with an education degree who are not teachers. Behavior theory is the rule of the school today. I couldn't figure out why we treat children like guinea pigs instead of like the human beings that they are. This book opened my eyes. There IS more to life than rewards and consequences. I think science has backed itself into a corner, though, because religion has a corner on the love and respect market and science has repeatedly assured us that all that spiritual stuff is nonsense. This book is a must read for anyone with an accessible heart.
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Summary: Good Historical Perspective
Review: Like many others, I never forgot the pictures in my intro psych text of Hary Harlow's baby monkies and their surrogate mothers. Blum's very readable book reviews Harlow's work and places it in the historical context of psychology and the social perspectives the middle part of the 1900's. Although the descriptions of Harlow's experiments were well written, the last chapters of Blum's book were most interesting to me. In these chapters, Blum describes the feminist and animal rights back lash against Harlow's work. One can't help be stunned by the irony that Harlow's work, which ultimently championed the importance of mothers' relationships to their children and the deep intelligence of monkies (and their similarities to human beings), would be vilified by these groups. Blum's book is, thus, not only about one of the most innovative psychologists of the past century, but also a great perspective of how we change our thinking about what we are as a species. It is far more than a book about the man who took baby monkies away from their mothers.
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Summary: This book provided reassurance for me as a mother
Review: Love at Goon Park is about Harry Harlow, a scientist who uses monkeys to prove that feeling loved is very, very important to children from the minute they are born and to us all. I was curious about such a scientific project but was totally surprised at how much I enjoyed the book. It's a very good read on every page. The author explains it all clearly and simply, letting her own feeling for both the animals and the people come through. My own children are adults now, but mothers have the hardest job on earth, and we need constant reassurance that we provide a good environment for our family. Reading Love at Goon Park gave me reassurance, and I highly recommend it. You don't have to have a background in science to benefit from its words.
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Summary: Harlow's findings are relevant today
Review: This biography brings us Harry Harlow, a genius in research and a flawed human being. His primate experiments explain the attachment of abused children to their abusers, the importance of early bonding, and I can only wonder what he would think of today's childraising. Too many children are being "nurtured" by a TV or video game; affluent parents turn their offspring over to caretakers who can't speak English nor encourage development, and shuttle them off to impersonal "enrichment programs", and put even the little ones on drugs to control behavior. My grandmother friends and I seek to provide the feedback so necessary for children to grow into confident, loving adults, but I know we are waging a losing battle. This is a very readable book which covers the controversy over Harlow's work fairly. truly a work of scholarship and warmth.
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Summary: Review update
Review: This book has a whole new meaning now that the debate over stem cell research has reached the forefront. Harry Harlow's research cause a plethora of laws to be passed limiting researchers to more ethical, humane treatment of animal subjects. Now, homo sapien babies are the target of the debate over individual rights and the greater good of society. We've saved the rats and the monkeys from murderous research, but the future doesn't look so good for humans. I know the argument: Like African-Americans, women, and Jews of the past, "not quite human enough" for human rights is the classification unborn children receive today. At least other animals are somewhat safe from our selfish desire to live in perfect health forever. Deborah Blum, thank you. You are one of the few who understands Harlow's work.
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Summary: Will someone please turn this into a movie?
Review: This book is a study of love and affection and turns some traditional scientific research on it's ear. Perhaps more ironic is the fact that while Harry was studying love and parenting at the lab, his own wife and children felt deprived by his absense which led to their divorce. Truth is indeed stranger than fiction.
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