"Hospitalism Syndrome"

The studies in the founding homes are discussed in his book, NO AND YES: On the Genesis of Human Communication (1957) The research that was conducted for this book was also captured on film. The clips of the infants he studied show exactly what he had written about in this book.


“On my approach or on that of anybody…a number of these infants would rotate their heads around the sagittal axis of the spinal column. This behavior, which closely resembled the universally familiar head-shaking pattern of the grownup in whom it signifies “No,” continued as long as a stranger confronted them.” He goes on to write, “…when they [the children] became active, their main activity consisted in bizarre finger movements. They would watch the movements of their fingers for prolonged periods, sometimes for hours.”

Along with the finger movements and head rolling, these children who experienced hospitalism syndrome, which was the result of “the loss of a loved object” after a period of longer than five months; would also grasp their clothes, which seemed to be forced, toes and socks when they lifted their legs. The infants with more advanced anaclitic depression would cry when someone would walk towards them. Between the crying and the movements, Spitz created the term, “negative cephalogyric motions.” He borrowed the words “cephalogyric motions” from the psychiatrists Tilney and Casamajor.

Further on in this book, Spitz goes on to talk about his viewings of these “negative cephalogyric motions.” He says that these movements are not voulentary like an adult’s would be when emotionally rejecting something or someone. Each age developes differently an example of this would be babies turning their heads in such a way that it is not like swinging or banging. Older infants tend to hide their faces in their blankets or clothes.

In later chapters, Dr. Spitz explains how these types of movements can eventually become “semantic meaning.” He states that for these gestures to mean something, there has to be some sort of “ego apparatus.” This means that the child had to have learned about importance and had to have then conformed to their reality of rejection. These children don’t understand why they are treated this way, and why they were separated from their mothers just after six months of life.