    17

    Isolation--The Ultimate Poison

    Remove the sponge cell from the sponge, prevent it from finding

    its way back to its brethren, and it dies.  Scrape a liver cell from the

    liver and in its isolation it too will shrivel and give up life.  But what

    happens if you remove a human from his social bonds, wrenching him

    from the superorganism of which he or she is a part?

    In the 1940's, the psychologist Rene Spitz studied human babies

    isolated from their mothers.  These were the infants of women too poor

    to care for their children, infants who had been placed permanently in

    a foundling home.  There, the children were kept in what Spitz called

    "solitary confinement,"  placed in cribs with sheets hung from the sides

    so that the only thing the babies could see was the ceiling.  Nurses

    seldom looked in on them more than a few times a day.  And even

    when feeding time came, the babies were left alone with just the

    companionship of a bottle.  Hygiene in the homes was impeccable.  But

    without being held, loved, and woven into the fabric of a social web,

    the resistance of these babies was lowered.  Thirty four out of 91 died.

    In other foundling homes, the death rate was even higher.  In some, it

    climbed to a devastating 90%.40  A host of other studies have shown the

    same thing.  Babies can be given food, shelter, warmth and hygiene.

    But if they are not held and stroked, they have an abnormal tendency

    to die.

    Two means have been discovered to produce depression in

    laboratory animals: uncontrollable punishment and isolation.  Put an

    animal in a cage by himself, separated from his nestmates, and he will

    lose interest in food and sex, have trouble sleeping, and undergo a

    muddling of the brain.41

    Tampering with bonds to the larger social organism can have

    powerful consequences.42  In humans, feeling you're unwanted can

    stunt your growth.  The flow of growth hormones, according to recent

    research, is affected strongly by "psychosocial factors."  Monkeys  taken

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