Dr. Benjamin SpockBy: Kim Wellnitz

Who is he?• Dr. Spock is a baby doctor

• Wrote books on child care

• His work influenced how Americans’ brought up an entire generation of young people.

Early Life

• Born May 2nd, 1903 • New Haven, CT• Strict New England family• Oldest of 6 children

– Benny, Hiddy, Betty, Anne, Bobby, Sally– Spock helped take care of his siblings in various

ways

• His Mother’s pride and joy

Parents

• Mother– Mildred Spock– Very strict rules on her children

• Enforced mostly all the rules upon her children

– Loved taking care of her children – Father abandonment– Discipline began for her children when they

became toddlers– Thought sex was dangerous

Parents

• Father– Benjamin Spock– a Yale graduate and long-time general counsel of

the New Haven Railroad– Not too involved in Ben’s life

Need for Fresh Air• Mothers wishes for her children to always have fresh

air

• Make children sleep on “sleeping porch”– No matter how cold

• Pure, chaste, wholesome

• Dr. Luther Emmett Holt – leading expert of the day

School

• Went to many schools as a child• Mother was never satisfied

– Home school• Harsh on Ben’s learning ability

– Mrs. Ogden’s Home School• 2 years

– Public school• Worthington Hooker• 3 months

– Fresh air school

Later Schooling• Hamdan Hall Boys School

– Private preparatory schools – Bad grades– Looked up to his teacher– Loved to dance

• Andover Boarding School– Loved to sneak away from mother – Never missed home– Very good track athlete

College

• Yale– attended from 1921 to 1925 – majoring in English literature

• Worked at a summer camp where children had polio– Crippled– After working with these kids he wanted to become

a children's doctor

• senior society--- Scroll and Key

Yale - Cont.

• Continued high jump• Joined the crew team

– represented the United States in the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris, France.

– gold medalist• Met his future wife, Jane Cheney

– Spent countless hours writing letters to each other

Medical School

• Wanted to become a pediatrician– Yale Medical School in 1925

• Between 1933 and 1944 – Spock practiced pediatric medicine– At the same time he taught pediatrics at

Cornell Medical College

Married Man

• Married Jane Chesney• Moved to New York

– Little money– Allowance– transferred to Columbia University's College of

Physicians and Surgeons– graduated 1st in his class

Dr. George Draper

• Jane – Looking for a job– His research assistant– Participant in his psychological studies

• Jane comes home upset– Spock begins studying Freud to understand the

changes in his wife's disposition.

First Born Child• Baby Peter

– Born early– He died shortly after birth

• Ben blamed death of his first born son with his guilt over having sex

• Mothers warning– Sexual thoughts would cause his children to be born

deferred or worse

• Shortly after babies death Ben’s father dies from heart attack

Research

• Donates his son’s body for research

• Spock then realizes his dream of becoming a baby doctor

• Joined an internship in pediatrics– Spent many hours with mothers answering their

questions to put their minds at ease

Parents Questions• Spock's experience with children made him realize that half the

questions parents asked related to psychological issues.

• He became convinced that pediatricians should have training in psychology

• Looked back to Sigmund Freud's insights and work – Focused on his stages of development

• Provided a better framework

• Encourage child development other than the harsh and rigid approach of his own parents.

Freud

• Spock looked to Freud and his work• Not only was his new approach on the ideas of

Freud, but also on John Dewey• He knew he would lose audience if he tried to

drag in Freud too much.

Practice

• Psychiatric residency at Cornell college– One year– Most patients were schizophrenics and manic

depressants– Agreed most with psychoanalysis

• Opened his own pediatric practice in 1933– East side of New York– Learn as much as possible about Freud and his

theories

Self-Analysis

• Spock thought he himself should be analyzed– Believed it to be successful– Discovered to Oedipus complex

• Mother and father issues

– Thought to use psychoanalysis in his own practice

Pediatric Psychoanalysis

•Started to think about child rearing

•Early weaning, harsh toilet training, mothers affection

•Caroline B. Zackry

•Introduced Spock to Dewey’s idea of learning by doing and children are anxious learners

•His own practice was becoming successful

Trying for Children…Again

• After many miscarriages • Gave birth to second son Michael

– Healthy– Raised and brought up according to Holt

• Holt (Early 20-30’s)– Strict schedules– Not too much coddling– If have to kiss child do so on the cheek or

forehead

Becoming a Doctor

• 1937 Spock became a board-certified pediatrician

• Increasingly captivated with the goal of changing America's child-rearing practices.

• Ready to put his brand of advice into book form

Writing his book

• Began to write his book in 1941• Thought mothers seem to have same basic

problems, including the need for basic information

• Jane supported the idea and help to construct the book– Typed and edited the book– Many hours

Message in the book• Trust yourselves-you know more than you think you do!

• It would embody the most up-to-date answers to all the problems that mothers might encounter during their children's development from infancy through puberty.

• It would seek to correct the deficiencies of his own upbringing – (as revealed through psychoanalysis).

• He hoped it would revolutionize the way children were raised.

• Treat as individuals

• Importance of father figures

THE Book, Navy, and Baby

• WWII- Spock enlisted as Navy Psychiatrist in 1944– Very bored

• Jane was pregnant with second son John– First “Spock Baby”

• Ben and Jane continued to write his book through phone calls and letters

Struggles Continue

• Ben gets transferred with the navy to California– Jane goes with and children stay in New York– John gets sick and Jane decides to go back– Lasted for 2 years in Navy

Publication

• Spock’s Book gets published!!• The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child

Care• 25 cents per book

THE BOOKS SUCCESS

•750,000 copies sold in first year

•Translated in many languages

•Sold millions within the first several years

•Mothers lived by the book

•https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTDBL_U68XM

Minnesota

• 1946 -- Spock accepted a job working at the Mayo Clinic – Child Heath Institute

• Moved there in his 40’s with wife and children• Jane missed New York• Spock began to grow closer to son Michael• Program fell through after death of Spock’s

boss

Marriage Troubles

• 1951– Spock moved to take a position as a teacher at U-Pittsburg

• Jane was once again unhappy with the move and Ben– Turned to alcohol– Ben’s lack of attention to her– 3 years later Jane has mental breakdown from her

unhappiness

Moving Again!!

• 1958– moved to Cleveland– Conducted child rearing studies– His focus was on everyday life problems– Psychological help

• Study made significant observations• he resigned in order to devote himself more

fully to the antiwar movement

Fame and Politics

• Spock began a nationwide TV show in 1955 and went on to write a monthly magazine column.

• In the early '60s – he became politically active– joining in the protest over the development and

testing of nuclear weapons.

• Campaigned for nuclear disarmament and against the war in Vietnam– arrested in protest demonstrations.

Running for Office

• 1960 – Campaigned for President Kennedy

• 1962 to 1967 - a co-chairman of the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy, known as SANE

• 1972 -- he actually ran for U.S. president as a left-wing third-party candidate.

Struggles

• His child-centered approach was often misapplied or taken to extremes.

• He began to feel the heat of public criticism.

• The “Spock babies” were adults now with their own children – and the so-called Spockmarks were beginning to

show.

Serving time• Spock was arrested at various protest

demonstrations • In 1968, a Boston court convicted him of

conspiring to counsel evasion of the draft. – sentenced to two years in prison– fined $5,000 – the conviction was reversed in 1969 by the United

States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit on the ground of insufficient evidence.

• By the time he turned 80 – in 1985, he had been arrested a dozen times for civil

disobedience, but he did not stop.

More Struggles

•Grandson Peter commits suicide

schizophrenic

•Spock asks for separation from Jane

Campaigning during the Vietnam War

wife's repeated breakdowns

induced by alcoholism

medication abuse

shattered the image of the ideal family man.

Family Issues

• 1976 - Jane and Spock’s marriage ended– 48 years together

• Married again– Mary Morgan – who had formerly arranged speeches and workshops

for him– 40 years younger– Needed someone to love him for what he had become– Lasted 22 years

Final Moments

• Formally retired in 1967

• Health began to fail in the 1980s– Chronic bronchitis and suffered a stroke in 1989

• Ben Spock passed away at the age of 94 (March 15,1998)

• His ashes are buried in Rockport, Maine

Interesting Finding

• Dr. Lipschitz (90’s cartoon Rugrats)

Discussion

• Many ideas in the book were branched off from Freud’s ideas. Do you think if people knew this, they would have raised their children by Spock’s work?

• Do you think his techniques could or should be used today? Would you raise your children by his techniques?