Changes

[[Ethology ]] is a [[biology ]] of [[behavior]]. It has developed a nomenclature for describing the behavior of all [[living ]] things in their [[natural ]] [[environment ]] using an approach that is naturalistic, experimental, and comparative. It describes the [[structure ]] of a behavioral sequence, its immediate causes, its adaptive benefits (its function), and its origin in the evolutionary [[development ]] of the [[species ]] and the [[biological ]] development of the [[individual]]. Ethology has established itself as an observational method in some of the existing [[social ]] [[sciences]], including genetics, ethoecology, ethoneurology, ethosociology, etholinguistics, and ethopsychoanalysis.After [[World ]] War II, René Spitz, faced with the behavioral [[pathology ]] of abandoned [[children]], following the [[work ]] of Anna [[Freud]], studied the genesis of [[object]]-relationships and the [[construction ]] of the ego within a [[Freudian ]] perspective. Strongly influenced by Konrad Lorenz and the then-new [[theory ]] of cybernetics, he observed and manipulated the "eyes-nose-mouth" stimulus [[signal ]] that triggers the suckling's motor smile. He subsequently developed the [[concept ]] of ego organizers and showed how the [[child]]'s [[mastery ]] of the head-shake, [[meaning ]] "No," marks the behavioral emergence of the [[process ]] of [[symbolization]].In 1958, John Bowlby, then president of the British [[Psycho]]-[[Analytic ]] [[Society]], described the effects of a [[lack ]] of [[maternal ]] care. These findings showed an "astonishing convergence" (Zazzo, 1974) with the Harlows' experiments on Rhesus monkeys, which demonstrated that the [[affective ]] [[relationship ]] between a [[mother ]] and her [[infant ]] was built not on nutritional [[needs ]] but rather on a primary [[need ]] for sensory [[exchange]].At the Twenty-First International Congress of [[Psychoanalysis ]] in Copenhagen (1959), a stimulating debate was initiated. Some [[psychoanalysts ]] felt that experiments on imprinting, epigenesis, stimulus-signals, synaptic [[facilitation]], and the behavioral ontogenesis that constructs [[human ]] ties buttressed the Freudian concept of [[drives]]. [[Others]], however, felt that these ran counter to Freudian theory, since the [[idea ]] of attachment as a primary bond contradicted that of an [[anaclitic ]] relationship to drives. They also felt that direct observation added [[nothing ]] to clear pictures of [[subject]]'s [[mental ]] world that could be obtained from a historical approach.In contemporary ethnopsychoanalysis, the ethological method is used to observe the [[structuring ]] of the primary bond and to evaluate it in [[terms ]] of [[life ]] events and [[cultural ]] pressures with, as a base-line, the observation of the "strange [[situation]]" (Ainsworth et al., 1978).The [[three ]] levels of interaction distinguish the [[body]], the [[affect]], and the [[fantasy ]] (Lebovici, 1991), which, as "[[psychic ]] [[representative ]] of the [[drive]]" (Freud), enables the [[unconscious ]] to give shape to the drive and thereby fashion the [[words ]] and gestures (Cosnier, 1984) that act on the [[other]]. Interestingly, Jacques [[Lacan ]] invoked ethology as early as 1936. His study of such phenomena as [[animal ]] behavior in front of a [[mirror ]] and the "dance" of sticklebacks enabled him to develop the fundamental [[concepts ]] of the mirror [[stage ]] and the interaction of the [[Real ]] and [[the Imaginary ]] in [[humans]].The [[psychoanalytic ]] development an ethological [[anthropology ]] allows us to situate man in the living world by emphasizing how the emergence of [[symbols ]] and [[signs ]] has created a specifically human, historicized world.

# Ainsworth, Mary D. Salter, Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., and Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A [[psychological ]] study of the strange situation. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum.# Bowlby, John. (1958). The [[nature ]] of the child's tie to his mother. International Journal of Psycho-[[Analysis]], 39, 350-373.# Cosnier, Jacques. (1984). La [[psychanalyse]], le [[langage ]] et la [[communication]]. Psychothérapies. 4 (4), 215-222# Harlow, Harry. (1958). La nature de l'[[amour]]. Le psychologue américain, 13, 673-685.# Lebovici, Serge. (1991). La dépendance du nouveau-né. In Catherine Dechamp-Le Roux (Ed.), [[Figures ]] de la dépen-dance, autour d'Albert Memmi (pp. 29-39). [[Paris]]: Presses Universitaires de [[France]].