James W. Prescott - Body Pleasure and the Origins of Violence (1975)
James W. Prescott, a neuropsychologist, is
a health scientist administrator at the National Institute of Child Health and
Human Development in Bethesda, Maryland. He is a member of the Board of
Directors of the American Humanist Association. This article appeared in part
in the April 1975 issue of The Futurist, published by the World
Future Society, and is reprinted here with their permission. The views and
opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect
the position of the National Institutes of Health.
A neuropsychologist contends that the greatest threat to world peace comes from those nations which have the most depriving environments for their children and which are most repressive of sexual affection and female sexuality... Violence against sexuality and the use of
sexuality for violence, particularly against women, has very deep roots in
Biblical tradition...
Human violence is fast
becoming a global epidemic. All over the world, police face angry mobs,
terrorists disrupt the Olympics, hijackers seize airplanes, and bombs wreck
buildings. During the past year, wars raged in the Middle East, Cyprus, and
Southeast Asia, and guerrilla fighting continued to escalate in Ireland.
Meanwhile, crime in the United States grew even faster than inflation. Figures
from the Federal Bureau of Investigation show that serious crimes rose 16
percent in the first six months of 1974—one of the largest crime increases
since FBI record-keeping began.
Unless the causes of
violence are isolated and treated, we will continue to live in a world of fear
and apprehension. Unfortunately, violence is often offered as a solution to
violence. Many law enforcement officials advocate 'get tough' policies as the
best method to reduce crime. Imprisoning people, our usual way of dealing with
crime, will not solve the problem, because the causes of violence lie in our
basic values and the way in which we bring up our children and youth. Physical
punishment, violent films and TV programs teach our children that physical
violence is normal. But these early life experiences are not the only or even
the main source of violent behavior. Recent research supports the point of view
that the deprivation of physical pleasure is a major ingredient in the
expression of physical violence. The common association of sex with violence
provides a clue to understanding physical violence in terms of deprivation of
physical pleasure.
Unlike violence,
pleasure seems to be something the world can't get enough of. People are
constantly in search of new forms of pleasure, yet most of our 'pleasure'
activities appear to be substitutes for the natural sensory pleasures of
touching. We touch for pleasure or for pain or we don't touch at all. Although
physical pleasure and physical violence seem worlds apart, there seems to be a
subtle and intimate connection between the two. Until the relationship between
pleasure and violence is understood, violence will continue to escalate.
John Mack: The Enemy System
As a developmental
neuropsychologist I have devoted a great deal of study to the peculiar
relationship between violence and pleasure. I am now convinced that the
deprivation of physical sensory pleasure is the principal root cause of
violence. Laboratory experiments with animals show that pleasure and violence
have a reciprocal relationship, that is, the presence of one inhibits
the other. A raging, violent animal will abruptly calm down when electrodes
stimulate the pleasure centers of its brain. Likewise, stimulating the violence
centers in the brain can terminate the animal's sensual pleasure and peaceful
behavior. When the brain's pleasure circuits are 'on,' the violence circuits
are 'off,' and vice versa. Among human beings, a pleasure-prone personality
rarely displays violence or aggressive behaviors, and a violent personality has
little ability to tolerate, experience, or enjoy sensuously pleasing
activities. As either violence or pleasure goes up, the other goes down.
Sensory Deprivation
The reciprocal relationship
of pleasure and violence is highly significant because certain sensory
experiences during the formative periods of development will create a
neuropsychological predisposition for either violence-seeking or
pleasure-seeking behaviors later in life. I am convinced that various abnormal
social and emotional behaviors resulting from what psychologists call
'maternal-social' deprivation, that is, a lack of tender, loving care, are
caused by a unique type of sensory deprivation, somatosensory deprivation.
Derived from the Greek word for 'body,' the term refers to the sensations of
touch and body movement which differ from the senses of light, hearing, smell
and taste. I believe that the deprivation of body touch, contact, and movement
are the basic causes of a number of emotional disturbances which include
depressive and autistic behaviors, hyperactivity, sexual aberration, drug
abuse, violence, and aggression.
These insights were
derived chiefly from the controlled laboratory studies of Harry F. and Margaret
K. Harlow at the University of Wisconsin. The Harlows and their students
separated infant monkeys from their mothers at birth. The monkeys were raised
in single cages in an animal colony room, where they could develop social
relationships with the other animals through seeing, hearing, and smelling, but
not through touching or movement. These and other studies indicate that it is
the deprivation of body contact and body movement—not deprivation of the other
senses—that produces the wide variety of abnormal emotional behaviors in these
isolation-reared animals. It is well known that human infants and children who
are hospitalized or institutionalized for extended periods with little physical
touching and holding develop almost identical abnormal behaviors, such as
rocking and head banging.
Although the
pathological violence observed in isolation-reared monkeys is well documented,
the linking of early somatosensory deprivation with physical violence in humans
is less well established. Numerous studies of juvenile delinquents and adult
criminals have shown a family background of broken homes and/or physically
abusive parents. These studies have rarely mentioned, let alone measured, the
degree of deprivation of physical affection, although this is often inferred
from the degree of neglect and abuse.
One exceptional study in this respect is that of Brandt F. Steele and C. B. Pollock, psychiatrists at the University of Colorado, who studied child abuse in three generations of families who physically abused their children. They found that parents who abused their children were invariably deprived of physical affection themselves during childhood and that their adult sex life was extremely poor. Steele noted that almost without exception the women who abused their children had never experienced orgasm. The degree of sexual pleasure experienced by the men who abused their children was not ascertained, but their sex life, in general, was unsatisfactory. The hypothesis that physical pleasure actively inhibits physical violence can be appreciated from our own sexual experiences. How many of us feel like assaulting someone after we have just experienced orgasm?
One exceptional study in this respect is that of Brandt F. Steele and C. B. Pollock, psychiatrists at the University of Colorado, who studied child abuse in three generations of families who physically abused their children. They found that parents who abused their children were invariably deprived of physical affection themselves during childhood and that their adult sex life was extremely poor. Steele noted that almost without exception the women who abused their children had never experienced orgasm. The degree of sexual pleasure experienced by the men who abused their children was not ascertained, but their sex life, in general, was unsatisfactory. The hypothesis that physical pleasure actively inhibits physical violence can be appreciated from our own sexual experiences. How many of us feel like assaulting someone after we have just experienced orgasm?
The contributions of
Freud to the effects of early experiences upon later behaviors and the
consequences of repressed sexuality have been well established. Unfortunately
time and space do not permit a discussion here of his differences with Wilhelm
Reich concerning his Beyond the Pleasure Principle. The hypothesis that
deprivation of physical pleasure results in physical violence requires a formal
systematic evaluation. We can test this hypothesis by examining cross-cultural
studies of child-rearing practices, sexual behaviors, and physical violence... read more
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