Unconditional Love  − 5 September, 2007

I absolutely love This American Life on NPR each weekend.  I try never to miss it--but if I do, I go online to catch it in the archives.  If you love someone with special needs, I recommend the following broadcast:

Unconditional Love Radio Broadcast

This American Life/NPR  --Click on link to  hear the  following  program:

Stories of unconditional love between parents and children, and how hard love can be sometimes in daily practice.

Prologue.
Hard as it is to believe, during the early Twentieth Century, a whole school of mental health professionals decided that unconditional love was a terrible thing to give a child. The government printed pamphlets warning mothers against the dangers of holding their kids. The head of the American Psychological Association and even a mothers' organization endorsed the position that mothers were dangerous—until psychologist Harry Harlow set out to prove them wrong, through a series of experiments with monkeys. Host Ira Glass talks with Deborah Blum, author of Love at Goon Park: Harry Harlow and the Science of Affection. (10 minutes)

Act One. Love Is a Battlefield.

Alix Spiegel tells the story of Heidi and Rick Solomon, who adopt a son raised under terrible circumstances in a Romanian orphanage—so terrible that he's unable to feel attachments to anyone. (27 minutes)

Song: "Loveless Town," Sarah Blust


Act Two. Hit Me with Your Best Shot.

Dave Royko talks about the decision he and his wife faced about their autustic son's future, including whether their son should continue living with their family. (19 minutes)

http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1204

Comments:

kga245 (September 14, 2007. 05:56pm)

Hi, Shannon. I wanted to let you know that I listened to this podcast last week and thought of you. Act 1 brought me to tears. I was walking outside and had to stop and collect myself for a second. Act Two is the one that they were advertising on NPR. Also gut-wrenching. Thanks for sharing.