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Mowgli's children are the sad consequences of their parents' parenting style. "Mowgli Syndrome" - a diagnosis of the human condition! Bird boy from Russia

Mowgli's children are the sad consequences of their parents' parenting style. "Mowgli Syndrome" - a diagnosis of the human condition! Bird boy from Russia

Our modern world can easily be called child-centric: many development methods are emerging, the principle of creativity has become fundamental in the process of education and training, and an individual approach is being implemented. L. Vygotsky’s discovery regarding sensitive periods in human development is recognized as particularly valuable for developmental psychology: if you make the most of this time, you can raise, if not a genius, then a gifted and realized person. However, if these periods are ignored, irreparable losses and omissions occur during the formation of personality, and Mowgli children are proof of this.

What are sensitive periods?

Today, classical developmental psychology identifies scientifically based sensitive periods that are most favorable for learning basic life skills. Why are they considered so auspicious? Because in certain periods, the physiological and mental process of development itself contains the maximum potential for mastering certain skills - this is associated with the pace, rhythm of life, and the formation of basic life activity systems. The term “sensitive period” was introduced into scientific use by L. S. Vygotsky. We are talking about qualitative changes, after which a person already appears in a new mental and physical form, reaching a new level of development.

And if you miss the chance of learning given by nature itself, then the development processes may be distorted or even become irreversible, taking place with irreparable losses. Let us consider the main sensitive periods in human development.

Sensitive periods for speech activity

development of vocabulary, development of fine motor skills (from one and a half to 3 years);
mastering letters (3-4 years), forming meaningful speech;
showing interest in music, mathematics (from 4 to 5 years), developing ideas about the sizes, colors, configuration of objects;
active social interaction (5 to 6 years);
rise in the ability to speak (from 8 to 9 years).

Need for stability

For a child, the predictability of each day at an early age is very important: certain rituals of waking up, eating patterns, walks, games, bedtime rituals. The primary idea of the world is associated with these phases of daily activity, and if it is stable and predictable, it means it is safe, and then the child’s basic trust in the world does not undergo unnecessary tests.

Stability is, among other things, when a mother reads the same favorite fairy tale many times, in which all the events are already known, it is the consistency of adults, their ability and ability to keep promises, the establishment of family rules (“In our family they don’t spit on the floor ”, “In our family you can be angry”, etc.). The sensitive period for developing a sense of stability is up to 3 years.

Sensory development

Sensory is the basis for mental activity, accumulation of vocabulary, teaching the exact sciences and humanities, and the formation of aesthetic taste. Therefore, sensory experience is an important aspect of personality development, and the sensitive period for the formation of this experience is the first 5 years. It is at this time that the child’s manipulations with objects of small shapes, various configurations, colors, and volumes are especially productive.

Physical activity

The most favorable period for the manifestation of physical activity is from the moment of independent walking (from about 1 year) to 4 years of age. At this time, mental activity is formed in close connection with physical activities. The development of motor activity is also associated with the idea of a child’s independence - the ability to observe etiquette standards, manage clothes and shoes, and manipulate important objects.

Sensitive period of primary socialization

This time is from 2 to 6 years. The child is immersed in the culture of communication, the general culture accepted in his family, learns productive norms of interaction, including learning the ability to express and experience emotions, focusing on the parental model. The “feedback” that he receives from peers and parents, the ability to make friends, empathize, help and ask for help, etc. becomes important.

Why are sensitive periods recognized by psychologists as irrevocably lost in the course of personality development?

The sensitive period is the time of greatest receptivity to mastering important skills, as mentioned above. And if no training has taken place, it will either be very difficult or even impossible for the child to master the skills. This is confirmed by the stories about the Mowgli children, the first report of which was made in the scientific community by Itar. For example, if no one talks to a child until he is 1 year old, then it will be difficult for him to learn to speak, and he will never fully master this skill. Moreover, the emotional sphere is also closely related to the manifestations of feelings of a significant adult towards the child. Today there are many stories of orphans who experienced a severe lack of affection, care and love and therefore did not learn to experience and express these feelings themselves. As Erikson believed, before the age of 1 year, basic trust in life is formed, and if this life is harsh on the child, if his needs are not met, and emotions are not experienced in their entirety, there is no trust in the world around him, and it is generally impossible to form it artificially later.

Having missed sensitive periods of development, Mowgli children (those who for some reason were removed from the human environment and raised by animals) will not be able to become fully socialized without sincere long-term participation in them. In addition, the factor of heredity and the length of time spent outside the human environment are also important in this regard. Today there are many true stories about how animals (wolves, dogs, monkeys) practically saved the lives of human cubs, teaching them vital survival skills in the animal and wild world. At the same time, the mental processes of many of these turned out to be irreversibly distorted, beyond the possibility of recovery. That is why such cases are designated in modern psychology and medicine as “Mowgli syndrome.”

What is "Mowgli syndrome"?

This is a complex of characteristics demonstrated by an individual who has developed and been brought up outside of society. How does this manifest itself? In the prevalence of instinctive manifestations, in isolation, inability to speak or distortion of speech, walking on all fours, lack of a concept of etiquette, complete lack of socialization, stability of health, mental abnormalities, which are actually inevitable under such conditions of upbringing, certain physical characteristics (for example, in a girl, living among monkeys for a long time, excessive development of the fingers was revealed due to the fact that they had to move through trees). Since a person is a complex system, the manifestations of Mowgli syndrome will be classified differently by different specialists.

What determines the possibility of getting rid of Mowgli syndrome?

Complete elimination of this complex of characteristics will most likely not occur even in the most favorable conditions: too much was lost in the process of development outside society. For psychologists, such cases once again confirmed the validity of the thesis about the exceptional importance of socialization for the development and formation of personality.

Here it is important to approach the issue individually: first of all, the length of stay in the wild and genetically determined factors are important.

If a Mowgli child is over 13 years old, that is, has passed the period of greatest mental flexibility, then only training will help in the process of developing important social skills, and even then, their development will not occur completely. But whether such an individual will become a person is a complex question, the answer to which is implied to be negative. He will no longer become a full-fledged personality, he will remain half animal, half human - the basic mental processes of formation are completed, periods of sensitivity were not used.

If a baby gets into a community of animals that move on four legs, then by the age of one year he masters this particular skill, and subsequently it is impossible to teach him to walk upright. The fate of the “saved” Mowgli children turns out to be deplorable in the human world: there were cases when they managed to survive and adapt slightly, but there are also stories about how, after being removed from the familiar world, such children died without having mastered human skills.

What is the conclusion?

Nothing is given to a person for nothing, and in order to develop fully, you need to make maximum use of all perception receptors, stimulate mental, physical and emotional activity. And the most important thing is to live in a society of your own kind, learning productive patterns of behavior and response. A person is not able to realize his full potential without society.

Literature:

1. Antipov A. Children-Mowgli. Electronic resource. Access mode: http://rumagic.com/ru_zar/sci_psychology/antipov/0/j151.html
2. Erickson E. Childhood and society. Electronic resource. Access mode: http://www.koob.ru/ericson_eric/detstvo_i_obshestvo

Editor: Chekardina Elizaveta Yurievna

Mowgli syndrome

It is known that in 1798, a naked boy, about 10 years old, emerged from a forest in the Aveyron province of France. Villagers noticed him from time to time, but no one knew what kind of child he was. It is quite possible that this was one of the many abandoned children left to die in the forest during those difficult times when infanticide was common - the era of the French Revolution. But Viktor, as he was later called, somehow managed to survive. When the locals finally caught him, news of Victory reached Paris, where this remarkable case caused a great stir. In the spirit of the Revolution, philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued that man is born good by nature, but society corrupts the “noble savage” within us. Victor was the first case to test this assertion, and the Parisian intelligentsia was eager to meet him. Without being corrupted by society, he could be the living embodiment of Rousseau's noble savage.

However, Victor was far from our ideas about nobility. He was violent, made animal sounds and could not control the urge to defecate. At first they thought that he was deaf and dumb, so he spent his first time at the National Institute for the Deaf and Dumb, but it soon became clear that Victor's problem was deeper than a simple inability to communicate. A young Parisian doctor, Jean Itard, who treated children at the institute, described Victor in his memoirs: “An ugly, dirty boy, subject to convulsions, often with convulsive movements, constantly swaying, like some animals in the menagerie, biting and scratching those who contradicts him, not expressing any gratitude to those who care about him... In short, indifferent to everyone and not paying attention to anything.”

Itard believed that patient training would allow Victor to integrate into society. Initial progress looked promising as Victor began to understand verbal commands. He even learned to wear clothes. But then his communication abilities stopped developing, despite 5 years of intensive training. Then Itard abandoned his attempts to return Victor to human society. Victor remained in the care of Itard's housekeeper until his death in 1828.

Wild or feral children like Victor appeared periodically, fueling public interest. What will a child turn into without parental education and the experience of other people? Will they ever be able to talk? In 1493, King James IV of Scotland reportedly ordered two babies to be sent to Inchkeith Island in the Firth of Forth to be raised by a mute woman because he wanted to know what language children would speak when they had never heard other people speak. . If you believe the chronicles of Robert Lindsay of Pitscotty, who later described this incident, then “it was said that they spoke good Hebrew.”

It is clear that feral children have excited the imagination of thinkers interested in the problem of the relationship between nature and nurture for centuries. This was also reflected in fiction. Remember the boy Mowgli, raised by wolves, from Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book” or Tarzan, the hero of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ books?

We are interested in this topic because we want to know what the natural qualities of man are and what he learns from the environment. What will his self be like in the absence of parental influence?

However, most reported cases of Mowgli children suffer from a lack of accurate information and details. In one well-documented case from the 1970s, psychologists studied Genie, a 14-year-old girl who had been socially isolated since infancy. She lived in a secret room in her mentally ill grandfather's apartment in Los Angeles. Like Victor, her abilities to communicate and understand remained limited, despite the best efforts of speech therapists and child psychologists to rehabilitate Genie.

Genie's case has been used as evidence for the existence of a critical period of social development, but without knowing the initial conditions of such children, it remains difficult to come to confident conclusions. They may have been abandoned because they already had brain damage. Reviewing Victor's case, child development specialist Uta Frith noted that the boy appeared to have signs of severe autism. We also do not know whether early malnutrition in feral children interferes with normal brain development, and if so, to what extent. Perhaps it is not so much the lack of social interaction that plays a role, but the lack of care and normal nutrition. However, the fall of the Romanian dictator in 1989 showed that physical care and psychological care are equally important for social development in the long term.

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From childhood, a person is formed under the influence of the conditions in which he grows. And if, before the age of 5, a child finds himself surrounded by animals rather than people, he adopts their habits and gradually loses his human appearance. "Mowgli Syndrome"- got this name cases of children forming in the wild. After returning to people, socialization became impossible for many of them. How the fates of the most famous Mowgli children turned out is further in the review.

The first known case of children being raised by animals, according to legend, was the story of Romulus and Remus. According to myth, they were nursed by a she-wolf as children, and later found and raised by a shepherd. Romulus became the founder of Rome, and the she-wolf became the emblem of the capital of Italy. However, in real life, stories about Mowgli children rarely have such happy endings.

The story, born from the imagination of Rudyard Kipling, is in fact completely implausible: children who are lost before they learn to walk and talk will not be able to master these skills in adulthood. The first reliable historical case of a child being raised by wolves was recorded in Hesse in 1341. Hunters discovered a child who lived in a pack of wolves, ran on all fours, jumped far, squealed, growled and bit. An 8-year-old boy spent half his life among animals. He could not speak and ate only raw food. Soon after returning to the people, the boy died.

The most detailed case described was the story of the “wild boy from Aveyron”. In 1797, in France, peasants caught a child of 12-15 years old in the forest, who behaved like a small animal. He could not speak; his words were replaced by a growl. Several times he ran away from people into the mountains. After he was recaptured, he became the object of scientific attention. Naturalist Pierre-Joseph Bonaterre wrote “Historical Notes on the Savage from Aveyron,” where he detailed the results of his observations. The boy was insensitive to high and low temperatures, had a special sense of smell and hearing, and refused to wear clothes. Dr. Jean-Marc Itard tried to socialize Victor (as the boy was named) for six years, but he never learned to speak. He died at the age of 40. The life story of Victor from Aveyron formed the basis of the film “Wild Child”.

Most of the children with Mowgli syndrome were found in India: from 1843 to 1933. 15 such cases have been recorded here. Dina Sanichar lived in a wolf den, he was found in 1867. The boy was taught to walk on two legs, use utensils, wear clothes, but he could not speak. Sanichar died at the age of 34.

In 1920, Indian villagers turned to missionaries to help them get rid of creepy ghosts from the jungle. The “ghosts” turned out to be two girls, 8 and 2 years old, who lived with the wolves. They were placed in an orphanage and named Kamala and Amala. They growled and howled, ate raw meat, and moved on all fours. Amala lived for less than a year, Kamala died at the age of 17, having by that time reached the development level of a 4-year-old child.

In 1975, a 5-year-old child was found among wolves in Italy. They named him Rono and placed him in the Institute of Child Psychiatry, where doctors worked on his socialization. But the boy died eating human food.

There were many similar cases: children were found among dogs, monkeys, pandas, leopards and kangaroos (but most often among wolves). Sometimes the children got lost, sometimes the parents themselves got rid of them. Common symptoms for all children with Maguli syndrome who grew up among animals were the inability to speak, moving on all fours, fear of people, but at the same time excellent immunity and good health.

Alas, children who grew up among animals are not as strong and beautiful as Mowgli, and if they did not develop properly before the age of 5, it was almost impossible to catch up later. Even if the child managed to survive, he could no longer socialize.

The fate of the Mowgli children inspired photographer Julia Fullerton-Batten to create

Mowgli children: life without intelligence

Incredibly, even in our century there are feral children, the so-called “Mowgli”, raised by wild animals or living in complete isolation from childhood. They have no social skills and, like wild animals, they are afraid of humans. Distinguished by excellent health, the level of intelligence of “Mowgli” is often at the level of the animals that raised them, they have difficulty learning to talk, refuse to wear clothes and cannot even walk upright.

Scientists give extremely disappointing forecasts for the rehabilitation of “Mowgli children.” It is believed that if a child has not communicated with people until the age of 3-6 years, it is almost impossible to return him to human society. They have difficulty learning to speak, have difficulty getting used to people, and may even die when separated from the wild.

It has been established that the lack of human interaction in a child leads to an abnormal formation of cells that insulate neurons and a slowdown in communication between different areas of the brain. Social isolation in the first years of a person's life leads to severe emotional instability and mental retardation.

The authoritative scientific journal Science published a study of “Mowgli syndrome” by American neurophysiologists, which showed that in isolation the functioning of brain cells is disrupted even in rodents. One group of newborn mice was isolated, and the second was left to develop in a normal environment. After comparing the brains of rodents a few weeks later, scientists found that in isolated mice there was a disruption in the functioning of cells that produce myelin, which is responsible for the sheath of nerve fibers, protects neurons from mechanical and electrical damage, and disruption of its production leads to serious diseases, such as multiple sclerosis.

Similar brain dysfunctions are observed in wild children. It is interesting that children raised by different animals differ from each other. For example, a child raised by monkeys or dogs is easier to “humanize” than one raised by a pack of wolves. But more often than not, the work of foster families and psychologists to rehabilitate them does not bring the desired results. Only a few of them manage to adapt to normal life, and their further existence takes place in specialized institutions.

Studies of children with “Mowgli syndrome” have proven: if the conditions of a child’s mental development do not meet his needs, then he will not be able to fill the gaps in adult life. This suggests that a person is an exclusively social being and outside of society a child cannot become a person, develop mentally, mentally and socially. Mental development largely depends on the influence of the external environment. A child is born with given properties, but these are just seeds that need certain conditions.

"Mowgli": who are they?

“Mowgli children” are found everywhere: in India and China, in Uganda and Cambodia, in Russia and Ukraine, even in the USA and Europe. In forests and big cities. They grow up with animals in barns, doghouses and are completely isolated from society.

Their instincts predominate, and although they become very hardy, strong, and hardened, they lose speech and the ability to adequately perceive the world. The older the child and the longer he has been isolated, the more difficult it is for him to live among people. It is believed that the adaptation of the “urban Mowgli” is more successful, because they were not completely excluded from human society. They begin to speak, walk on two legs, and are more receptive to learning than forest animals. But these children almost never become full-fledged members of society, having mental and mental disabilities.

Monkeys, cats, wolves, squirrels, pandas and even birds can replace their parents. But the most common are children raised by dogs. So, in 1991, a girl, Oksana Malaya, was found in Ukraine, whom her alcoholic parents left on the street at the age of three. She grew up with stray dogs for eight years, eating raw meat and garbage. The girl entered the dog pack, having forgotten all speech skills, and when they found her, she barked, ran on all fours and bit. After many years of adaptation, she was able to work on a farm (she takes care of cows) and relearn how to speak, but mental retardation still remained. Her speech abilities were restored due to the fact that when she got to the dogs, she already knew how to talk a little.

Moscow dog boy Ivan Mishukov has fully recovered his speech abilities, and now he is studying in a regular school. The fact is that he ran away from home at the age of 4 and already knew how to talk. He was adopted by a pack of dogs, in which he became the leader. The boy begged for food on the street and fed the flock that guarded him. Ivan had been living on the street for almost two years when social workers found him.

But the American Genie, who was kept in a wire mesh enclosure, locked by her own parents, for almost 10 years, was only able to partially restore her speech, despite all the efforts of psychologists. The head of the research group tried to introduce her into his family, scientists took her out to have fun, teachers took care of her education, but the results were not very impressive. The girl was able to operate only with the simplest phrases; the level of non-verbal intelligence rose over time, but psychologists noted the highest level of Gini’s spatial thinking.

The famous “wild boy from Aveyron” - Victor (one of the first “Mowgli”), never learned to speak. When he was found in France in 1800 at the age of 11-12 years, he could not utter a single human sound, but only growled like an animal. He sniffed food suspiciously before eating it, bit and even fought with dogs over a bone. The boy began to live in a family where he was taught human speech and behavior among people, but to no avail: he could only learn to read words specially written for him on cards, and then even began to write himself.

It is not surprising that children adopt the habits of the animals that raised them. A boy found on the island of Fiji lived among chickens and imitated their behavior: pecked food, jumped on a perch, and made characteristic sounds. A panda boy found in China walked on all fours; he did not wash himself, but licked himself. It ate leaves and bamboo shoots and expressed its displeasure by growling. Apart from a few small differences, the baby behaved like "tree bears." In addition, he was covered with wool, which, according to scientists, was the reason his parents abandoned him.

The Chinese girl Wang Xianfeng adopted the habits of the pigs who raised her, and the behavior of Anton Adamov, found in 2003 in the Ivanovo region, completely imitated the habits of a cat. He meowed, scratched, hissed, moved on all fours, rubbed his back against people's legs. The baby communicated only with the cat, with whom the mother locked the child so as not to distract him from drinking.

The Volgograd bird boy, discovered in 2008, understood bird language. A seven-year-old boy lived with his mother in an apartment filled with bird cages and soiled with droppings. Since the woman did not communicate with her son, he learned the language of birds: when you speak to the baby, he chirps and waves his arms, imitating the flapping of bird wings.

The work of scientists with such children is extremely important for science - for understanding the process of formation and development of the human personality. It helps to more clearly understand the aspects of the formation of human intelligence, one’s own conscious self, and the significance of the transfer of information between generations. Research shows how fragile the child’s psyche is, the gaps in a child’s mental development are irreparable, and how much the formation of personality and a person’s entire future life depend on upbringing. This is evidenced by the further life of “Mowgli” - not one of them became a real person...

By studying them, psychologists are creating new methods of teaching children with disabilities, helping thousands of people around the world lead normal lives. Linguists are receiving important information about the development and formation of human speech skills, and neurophysiologists are looking for ways to treat such deviations with drugs that stimulate the production of proteins necessary for the brain.

From childhood, a person is formed under the influence of the conditions in which he grows. And if, before the age of five, a child finds himself surrounded by animals rather than people, he adopts their habits and gradually loses his human appearance. “Mowgli syndrome” is the name given to cases of children being formed in the wild. After returning to people, socialization became impossible for many of them. How the fates of the most famous Mowgli children turned out is further in the review.

Indian Mowgli girl Kamala

Monument to Romulus, Remus and the she-wolf who suckled them

The story, born from the imagination of Rudyard Kipling, is in fact completely implausible: children who are lost before they learn to walk and talk will not be able to master these skills in adulthood. The first reliable historical case of a child being raised by wolves was recorded in 1341 in Hesse, Germany. The hunters discovered a child who lived in a pack of wolves, ran on all fours, jumped far, squealed, growled and bit. An 8-year-old boy spent half his life among animals. He could not speak and ate only raw food. Soon after returning to the people, the boy died.

Still from the cartoon "Mowgli", 1973

Savage from Aveyron in life and in cinema

The most detailed case described was the story of the “wild boy from Aveyron”. In 1797, in France, peasants caught a child of 12-15 years old in the forest, who behaved like a small animal. He could not speak; his words were replaced by a growl. Several times he ran away from people into the mountains. After he was recaptured, he became the object of attention of scientists. Naturalist Pierre-Joseph Bonaterre wrote “Historical Notes on the Savage from Aveyron,” where he detailed the results of his observations. The boy was insensitive to high and low temperatures, had a special sense of smell and hearing, and refused to wear clothes. Dr. Jean-Marc Itard tried to socialize Victor (as the boy was named) for six years, but he never learned to speak. He died at the age of 40. The life story of Victor from Aveyron formed the basis of the film “Wild Child”.

Still from the film “Wild Child”, 1970

Dina Sanichar

Most children with Mowgli syndrome are found in India: from 1843 to 1933, 15 such cases were recorded here. Dina Sanichar lived in a wolf den and was found in 1867. The boy was taught to walk on two legs, use utensils, and wear clothes, but he could not speak. Sanichar died at the age of 34.

In 1920, Indian villagers turned to missionaries to help them get rid of creepy ghosts from the jungle. The “ghosts” turned out to be two girls, eight and two years old, who lived with the wolves. They were placed in an orphanage and named Kamala and Amala. They growled and howled, ate raw meat, and moved on all fours. Amala lived for less than a year, Kamala died at the age of 17, having by that time reached the development level of a four-year-old child.

Indian Mowgli Amala and Kamala

In 1975, a five-year-old child was found among wolves in Italy. They named him Rono and placed him in the Institute of Child Psychiatry, where doctors worked on his socialization. But the boy died eating human food.

Still from the film “Wild Child”, 1970

Alas, children raised among animals are not as strong and beautiful as Mowgli, and if they did not develop properly before the age of five, it was almost impossible to catch up later. Even if the child managed to survive, he could no longer socialize.

Still from the cartoon "Mowgli", 1973