Evening star., 1950-12-08
By Benjamin Spock, M. D.

DR.. Spock. of the Rochester
(Minn.J Child Health Institute.
is the author of the famed
Pocket Book of Child Care"
The tolloWing are excerpts
from an address made By
hin, this Ueek at the Mid
century White House Confer
ence on Children and Youth.
At the meeting in September of
the Fact Finding Committee and
staff. after we had gone over re-
ports on the complexity of per-
sonality growth 80. we came to a
frightened realization: "These re-
ports make the development of a
healthy personality sound so haz-
ardous. American parents might
well conclude that 1t is hopeless
to try to acquire all the knowl-
edge and to find all the facilities
necessary to bring up children
right" Such a conclusion would,
Of course. be fatally wrong.
Solemnly, we agreed that the
one thing that is vital is that a
child have a pair, of good parents
who love him truly. With such a
start he can probably put up with
some degree of poverty or other
social disadvantage, because his
parents stand between him and
the world. interpreting it to him
in the light Of their own whole
someness and helping him to deal
with it. He can probably make
the best Of mediocre schooling
He can probably get along without
social services, and come through
with a personality that is capable
OF achieving individual happiness
and responsible citizenship. Such
a stable person will have a good
chance of picking up an excellent
wife and Of getting along splen-
didly with her. without benefit of
marriage counseling. When their
childrencome along, these parents
will probably be able to do a
good job without the help of child
study courses or psychiatrists.
Then why do we have a White
House Conference?
A large percentage Of our people
are Intellectual or unhappy and
they make every one else mis-
erable. There is too much cruelty
and hatred and suspicion and
fear. There are too many men
tally LII people. The number of
marriages that end in divorce sug-
gests a disturbing degree of i'm
maturity in the supposedly adult
years. There are too many
criminals.
When individual cases are
studied carefully, we can usually
find clear causes. most often be-
ginning in childhood, which theo-
retically could have been pre-
vented If the means had been
available.
What do we know today about
the development Of personality in
children? I can only give ex-
amples.
The baby is quite helpless for
q good part Of the first year except
for the workings of the organs
inside his plump abdomen, the
loud cry which he uses for any
discomfort and a sucking mechan-
ise that will almost take the skin
on your finger. Yet to me the
most fascinating fact of infancy
is that baby a couple of months
old. at a time when he can't talk.
stand, sit. reach with his hand
or hold his head steady, still
knows how to smile and does so
delightedly when his mother
greets him. He is clearly intended
to love and to evoke love from
the beginning. Even stuffy people
fall into baby talk with him. :.
Erikson has said that in the
first year Of life the baby acquires
his basic sense of trust, trust in
his parents loving ministrations
and through that, trust in him.
self. In the period from perhaps
l to 3 years he gets his sense of
autonomy.
He is testing the world. he is
testing and exercising his own