This is Hidden Brain. I'm Shankar Vedantam. In the middle of the 20th century, the influential

psycho analyst Eric Ericsson came up with a set of theories about human development.

In the earliest stage of life he said babies need to gain a

sense of trust in their caregivers. To bring this about the psycho analyst recommended

that parents shower their children with affection and quickly respond to signals of distress.

These concepts were to become influential in the field later known as developmental psychology. In 1944, Eric Erickson's ideas were put to

the test in his own life. His wife Joan Erickson gave birth to their fourth child, Neil. The labor proved difficult

and Joan was sedated after the birth. Meanwhile, doctors pulled Eric aside to give him some bad news about his newborn son.

The doctor said that baby Neil suffered from what they called known as Down syndrome.

Neel was going to be developmentally challenged

and would likely die within a short period of time.

Rather than burden the parents with the care of such a difficult baby,

the doctors recommended that Neil be immediately sent away to an institution.

Tormented by the decision before him, Erickson did what a lot of us might do in his

situation. He phoned a friend.

But in his case, the friend happened to be one of the most famous anthropologists of all time.

A scholar who had challenged the idea that our biology

makes us who we are.

Very much like Eric Ericsson himself, Margaret Mead believed in the power of nature. She believed that we are less

the product of our cells and genetic codes and more the creation of our families, cultures,

and societies.

This week on Hidden Brain, the surprising advice Margaret Mead gave Eric Ericsson and how we draw distinctions between differences and deficiencies. You're going to. From its inception, the field of anthropology had a problem. Western Scholars in the 19th century,

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