NICHD PRIMATE RESEARCH ON MATERNAL-INFANT SEPARATION: A CONGRESSIONAL INQUIRY.
A letter from the Congress to Dr. Francis S. Collins, Director, National Institutes of Health, dated December 22, 2014, stated:
“We are writing to express our concern about public reports of what has been described as an ongoing taxpayer-funded project involving psychological experiments on monkeys being conducted at an NIH laboratory in Poolsville, Maryland….
“From what we understand, these experiments are intended to cause monkeys to suffer from mental illness by breeding them to carry certain genes, removing them from their mothers at birth and subjecting them to distressful and sometimes painful procedures that measure their anxiety and depression.”…
“In view of this, we are requesting that your office commission a Bioethics Consultation of these experiments by the NIH’s Department of Ethics and provide us with a Consultation Report by February 27, 2015” (letter attached, below).
First, these psychological experiments were NOT intended to cause monkeys to suffer from mental illness by breeding them to carry certain genes but were designed to study the effects of maternal-infant separation (originally to facilitate more successful breeding practices). (Letter attached, below).
THERE ARE NO GENES FOR VIOENCE—NO GENES FOR LOVE.
THESE ARE LEARNED BEHAVIORS.
The intent of this BLOG is to make available to the Congress the intent and scope of NICHD/NIMH research on this subject and to summarize the principal (but not all) findings from this government funded research.
This summary is to be found in the attached documents below, which supports that mother-infant separation—the failure of physical (not mental-neocortical) affectional bonding (Love)- is the leading cause of the principal behavioral and mental disorders that afflict homo sapiens world-wide—anhedonia-the inability to experience Pleasure.
Violence (homicidal and suicidal), drug abuse and addiction are the principal behavioral disorders consequent to the failure of Mother Love– the foundation for all subsequent relationships, whether they be harmonious or chaotic-; sexually affectionate or violent.
PAIN INHIBITS PLEASURE; PLEASURE INHIBITS PAIN
These early life experiences shape developing brain-behavioral relationships that determine the future of Culture and Humanity.
These dimensions are summarized in Figure 1 for a ready understanding of the complexities involved. –Two Cultural Brains.
http://www.violence.de/prescott/letters/Our_Two_Cultural_Brains.pdf
The letter of 15 September 2014 to Vice President Biden and Senators Carper and Coon provide:
- A chronology of research activities on child abuse and neglect;
- The Directive of Secretary Weinberger to federal agencies to implement these policies;
- The ultimate betrayal and abandonment of this Congressional and DHEW Secretarial Directives by the NICHD;
- The efforts by Health Scientist Administrator Dr. Prescott, over the past some forty years, to comply with these Directives;
- His unlawful termination for defense of these Congressionally mandated programs;
- And his efforts that continue to this day to hold accountable the NICHD/NIH accountable for the violations of Public Law that has propelled this Nation into a death spiral of violence.
The psychopathology of early life experiences initiate the pathology of brain-behavioral disorders that last a lifetime, many, of which, are noted in my letter to VP Biden.
Specifically terminated NICHD programs established:
- Cerebellar brain damage in adult pathologically violent primates deprived of mother love. https://vimeo.com/71761209 2 Min http://www.violence.de/berman/article.html
2.Impaired platelet serotonin in mother deprived primates. http://www.violence.de/coleman/article.html
3. Abnormal electrical discharges, called “spiking” in the Septum–a subcortical emotional brain structure known to mediate violent behavior in mother deprived primates. http://www.violence.de/heath/bfm/article.html
http://www.violence.de/saltzberg/1980paper.pdf
What NICHD research programs have evaluated cerebellar and Septal brain damage in depressed / violent abused and neglected children and adults?
It is imperative that we know the degree of brain impairment we are inflicting upon our children who later manifest violent behavior. (Not unlike the brain damage that is inflicted by playing football by children and adults.
The above facts and questions must be addressed by Dr. Collins, Director, NIH.
The abandoned research on child abuse and neglect by the NICHD has prevented an answer to these questions that should have been answered generations ago.
The failure of Culture to support Women, as Nurturing Mothers, is the principal cause of a Culture of Violence that threatens human survival.
- THE CHILD IS THE FATHER OF THE MAN
- THE CHILD IS THE MOTHER OF CULTURE
- THE CHILD IS THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY
On this 52nd year after the birth of the NICHD, I am calling for all Citizens to write their Congressional Representatives to take corrective actions of this betrayal and abandonment of Mothers, Children and the Family—the future of HUMAN Civilization– by the NICHD / NIH.
I have further offered my testimony before the Congress, as an expert witness, on these research programs, and in response to the Congressional inquiries raised in the letter of 22 December 2014 to Dr. Collins.
Sincerely,
James W. Prescott, Ph.D.
Director
17 February 2015
Steven E. Hyman, MD
Harvard University Distinguished Service
Professor and Director
President, for Neuroscience
1121 14th St Suite 1010
Washington, D.C. 20005
Dear Dr. Hyman,
Please find enclosed documents sent to you by email on 14 February 2015 concerning the Congressional Inquiry on primate maternal-infant separation research at the NICHD when I joined the NICHD in the fall of 1964 and created the Developmental Behavioral Biology Program to study the effects of maternal-infant separation, known as child abuse and neglect, upon brain-behavioral development and function.
The Harlow/Mason studies were the foundations of my brain-behavioral research programs conducted under grant and contract research support. More information can be provided, if desired.
There is a long history here and perhaps you may wish to forward this documentation to the Congressman and Congresswomen who initiated this inquiry and request Congressional Hearings on this subject of preeminent importance. Perhaps the Society for Neuroscience can be helpful in bringing this message to the public attention.
The NIH abandoned and betrayed the abused and neglected children of America and their Mothers, which I have been opposing since my wrongful termination by the NICHD in 1980 over their violation of PL 87-838, which created the NICHD.
Enclosed are two copies of my DVD The Origins of Love and Violence which contains the Time life documentary Rock a Bye Baby, where I served as s Scientific Director and was premiered at the 1970 White House Conference on Children.
Please share enclosures with
Michael E.Goldberg, MD
David Mahoney Professor of Brain andBehavior
Departments OF Neuroscience, Neurology, Psychiatry,and Ophthalmology
Columbia University ,College of Physicians and Surgeons
Chair, SFN Committee on Animals in Research
Sincerely,
James W. Prescott, Ph.D.
Vice President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.