This professor wrote a best-selling parenting guide. Then 3 of his 4 kids committed suicide.

Introduction. Meet John Watson: the father of Behaviorism. In 1928, he wrote a parenting guide. It became a best-seller. This his kids started killing themselves. Here's a story of scientific arrogance, the meaning of love, and 1 expert who was very, very wrong...👇

Dr. John Watson was a man of bold claims. He believed he could turn a random infant into “any type of specialist” from doctor to artist to a thief - “regardless of his talents, tendencies, abilities.” How? With psychological conditioning and other tools of behaviorism.

John Watson shared these tools with the world in a book co-written with his wife: Psychological Care Of Infant and Child. “Society” comes up 8 times. The “environment” 10 times. The “soul” 0 times. Among other things, the book says a mother’s love is “dangerous.”

Watson taught millions that showing love to kids without reason sets up bad INCENTIVES. The world doesn’t comfort a person for crying, so neither should a mother. Parents must be “objective, and free from sentiment.” Watson walked his talk. Let’s check in on his kids…

Years after Watson’s death, his son gave a tell-all interview: “We were never shown any kind of emotional closeness. It was absolutely verboten in the family.” Getting close to parents was “taboo.” 3/4 of Watson’s kids, from 2 different marriages, tried suicide. One succeeded.

Watson’s wife had doubts about her famous husband's “wisdom.” She once revealed her “secret wish” - that “her sons have a tear in their eyes for the poetry and drama of life and a throb for romance.” BUT in practice she toe’d her husband’s line even when he “wasn’t looking.”

Watson’s son: “My reason for entering therapy was an attempted suicide. I strongly believe that strict adherence to the principles of behaviorism tends to erode the fundamental development of the child’s ego strength and to cause a great deal of difficulty in later life.”

Watson’s kids were never allowed to switch on the “night lights” no matter the thunder storms outside. They weren’t allowed toys either. Their sex ed started at 7. They would later find out that their father always “slept with the light on because of his own dread of the dark.”

Watson’s blindspot is the blindspot of modernity. Above all he cared about “independence” and “non involvement.” He believed kids shouldn’t “know their own parents” and could be better brought up in communal homes. Today the world suffers from this atomized vision of humanity.

For Watson, love was unearned validation that promoted mediocrity. But love is actually unearned faith, and faith is ALWAYS unearned. To be loved is to have someone presuppose value and latent greatness in you without proof - the foundation of self-esteem. As Chesterton said: