Benjamin Spock
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- This article deals with the American pediatrician: "Dr. Spock" redirects here. For the fictional Star Trek character, see Spock. For other uses of the name, see Spock (disambiguation).
Image:Mlk3.jpg Benjamin McLane Spock (May 2, 1903–March 15, 1998) was an American pediatrician whose book Baby and Child Care, published in 1946, is one of the biggest best-sellers of all time. Its revolutionary message to mothers was that "you know more than you think you do." Spock was the first pediatrician to study psychoanalysis to try to understand children's needs and family dynamics. His ideas about childcare influenced several generations of parents to be more flexible and affectionate with their children, and to treat them as individuals, whereas the previous conventional wisdom had been that child rearing should focus on building discipline, and that, e.g., babies should not be "spoiled" by picking them up when they cried.
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Life
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Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Spock was expected by his parents to help with the care of his five younger siblings. Spock received his undergraduate medical education from Yale University, where he became a member of Scroll and Key and the Zeta Psi fraternity, and was a rower. As member of the American eight crew, he won a gold medal at the 1924 Summer Olympics, rowing an all-Yale eight, along with James Stillman Rockefeller, with whom he shared a Scroll and Key membership in common.
Dr. Spock attended medical school at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, where he graduated first in his class in 1929. He did residency training in pediatrics at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University in Manhattan and then in psychiatry at Cornell's Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic.
During World War II, he served a psychiatrist in the U.S. Navy Reserve Medical Corps, ending with the rank of lieutenant commander.
Spock died at his home in La Jolla.
Books
In 1946 Spock published his book The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care, which became a bestseller. By 1998, it had sold more than 50 million copies. It has been translated into 39 languages. Later, he wrote three more books about parenting.
Spock advocated ideas about parenting that were at the time, considered out of the mainstream. Over time, his books helped to bring about a major change, if not a reversal, in the opinions of those who considered themselves to be the experts. Previously, experts had told parents that babies needed to learn to sleep on a regular schedule, and that picking them up and holding them whenever they cried would only teach them to cry more and not to sleep through the night. They were told to feed their children on a regular schedule, and that they should not pick them up, kiss them, or hug them, because that would not prepare them to be strong and independent individuals in a harsh world. Spock encouraged parents to see their children as individuals, and not to apply a one-size-fits all philosophy to them.
Later in life, Spock wrote a book titled "Dr. Spock on Vietnam" and an autobiography titled "Spock on Spock" in which he stated his attitude toward aging: "Delay and Deny".
Claims that Dr. Spock advocated permissiveness
Some have seen Spock as the leader in the move toward more permissive parenting in general, and have blamed him for what they saw as the negative results. Norman Vincent Peale claimed in the late 1960's that "the U.S. was paying the price of two generations that followed the Dr. Spock baby plan of instant gratification of needs."[1] Vice President Spiro Agnew denounced him as the "father of permissiveness," claiming that Dr. Spock's child rearing principles encouraged lawlessness among young people in the 1960s. Spock's supporters believed that these criticisms betrayed an ignorance of what Spock had actually written, and/or a political bias against Spock's left-wing political activities. Spock himself, in his autobiography, pointed out that he had never advocated permissiveness; also, that the attacks and claims that he had ruined American youth only arose after his public opposition to the Vietnam war. He regarded these claims as ad hominem attacks, whose political motivation and nature was clear.
Politics
In 1957, Spock was one of the founders of The Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy. Spock was politically outspoken and active in the movement to end the Vietnam War. In 1968 he was prosecuted by then Attorney General Ramsey Clark, alongside four other men, on charges of conspiracy to counsel, aid, and abet resistance to the draft. Spock and three of his alleged co-conspirators were convicted although the five had never been in the same room together. His two-year prison sentence was never served, as the case was appealed and in 1969 a federal court set aside his conviction.
Spock was the People's Party candidate in the 1972 United States presidential election with a platform that called for free medical care, the repeal of "victimless crime" laws, including the legalization of abortion, homosexuality and marijuana, a guaranteed minimum income for families and the immediate withdrawal of all American troops from foreign countries. [2] In the 1970s and 1980s, Spock demonstrated and gave lectures against nuclear weapons and cuts in social welfare programs.
Spock embraced women's and girls' equality relatively early. Editions of Baby and Child Care issued in the mid-1970s were edited to refer to babies and children as "she" about half the time. This was a departure from the norm at that time. Especially among established authors of Spock's age, there was still a strong school of thought claiming that the pronoun "he" was correct for all persons unless speaking of a specific female or female matters. Spock's book was the first major/mainstream book to abandon that view and usage.
In 1972, Spock, Julius Hobson (his Vice Presidential candidate), Linda Jenness (Socialist Workers Party Presidential candidate) and Socialist Workers Party Vice Presidential candidate Andrew Pulley wrote to Major General Bert A. David, commanding officer of Fort Dix, asking for permission to distribute campaign literature and to hold an election-related campaign meeting. Based on Fort Dix regulations 210-26 and 210-27, General David refused the request. Spock, Hobson, Jenness, Pulley and others then filed a case that ultimately made its way to the United States Supreme Court (424 U.S. 828 -- Greer, Commander, Fort Dix Military Reservation, et al., v. Spock et al), which ruled against the plaintiffs.
424 U.S. 828: [3]
Election Results: [4]
See also an interview in Libertarian Forum, December 1972. http://www.mises.org/journals/lf/1972/1972_12.pdf
Public misconceptions
Contrary to popular rumor, Dr. Spock's son did not commit suicide. Spock has two children, Michael, formerly the director of the Boston Children's Museum and since retired from the museum profession, and John, a construction general contractor, both of them still alive. However, Spock's grandson Peter committed suicide on December 25, 1983 at the age of 22 by jumping from the roof of the Boston Children's Museum. Peter Spock had long struggled with mental illness.
It is common to see "Dr. Spock" confused with the fictional character "Mr. Spock" of Star Trek fame, particularly in references from people unfamiliar with the science fiction franchise. Reportedly, Trek creator Gene Roddenberry did not intentionally name the character after Dr. Spock; this was a coincidence.
Dr. Spock in Popular Culture
- He is mentioned in passing by Kirstie Alley's character in the 1989 film Look Who's Talking (John Travolta's character, of course, thinks of Mr. Spock from Star Trek).
- He is also mentioned in Antonia S. Byatt's 1985 novel Still Life.
- In the Star Trek novel Strangers from the Sky, a time-traveling Mr. Spock is befriended by one of his Human mother's ancestors, who wonders if he's related to Benjamin Spock.
- The character Dr. Lipschitz in the animated series Rugrats may be a reference to or parody of Dr. Spock.
- Dr. Spock was mentioned in a recent Gilmore Girls episode when G.G. (Chris' child) was behaving wildly.
External link
Categories: 1903 births | 1998 deaths | American physicians | American World War II veterans | United States Navy officers | Anti-Vietnam War | Anti-war activists | Columbia alumni | Parenting | People from Connecticut | Pediatricians | Tax resisters | United States presidential candidates | Vegetarians | Zeta Psi brothers | Phillips Academy alumni | Rowers at the 1924 Summer Olympics