Touch
Our most powerful experiences as human beings come through the medium of touch. As infants, our parents caress and care for us and we respond and reciprocate, reaching out to explore the world around us. Touch can make us feel nurtured it plays a strong role in developing social bonds and helps us feel connected to the outside world as well as the way we feel about ourselves.
Many studies have shown that the quality and quantity of appropriate loving touch is crucial for our healthy physical, emotional, and mental development. One interesting study, conducted in the mid 1960’s by psychologist Harry Harlow, demonstrates how fundamental touch and attention is as it relates to human development and provides us food for thought.
Infant rhesus monkeys, raised in a lab, were given the choice between two surrogate mothers. One mother covered in terry cloth was lit from behind with a light bulb for warmth and the second was constructed of wire mesh and possessed a nipple that supplied milk. The monkeys consistently clung to the terry cloth mother for comfort and only when extremely hungry would dash to the wire mesh mother and then quickly return to the comfort mother. When the lab raised monkeys were introduced into a population of monkeys of the same age that were raised by natural mothers they were unable to socialize. When it came to raising their own infants there was no maternal attachment and one of the lab monkeys ate its offspring.
While we’re not monkeys, we are tactile creatures and touch is an instinctive, natural language that we all speak and understand. Touch is essential for stimulating our nervous system and promoting healthy physical development and vital for our mental, social and self-development. The best thing about touch is that is not one sided and there is benefit to both the giver as well as the receiver.