- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226811383
- eISBN:
- 9780226811376
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226811376.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Ethical Issues and Debates
This chapter investigates the empirical research on touch and attachment. It argues that loving touch and intimate attachment are significant for infant development and flourishing. It examines touch ...
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This chapter investigates the empirical research on touch and attachment. It argues that loving touch and intimate attachment are significant for infant development and flourishing. It examines touch research generally to argue that most people need human touch in order to flourish physically, emotionally, and socially, not to mention morally. The firm touch was received in a sustained hug, during a massage, while being held, or in a sexual encounter. Adult pleasure in touch was inevitable and potentially problematic, and yet parents, teachers, and other intimate caretakers were, for the sake of both the children and their relationships with them, obliged to touch children comfortingly and affectionately. It is argued that if affectionate, firm touch is necessary to both our being and our being “becomingly,” then it is a right.Less
This chapter investigates the empirical research on touch and attachment. It argues that loving touch and intimate attachment are significant for infant development and flourishing. It examines touch research generally to argue that most people need human touch in order to flourish physically, emotionally, and socially, not to mention morally. The firm touch was received in a sustained hug, during a massage, while being held, or in a sexual encounter. Adult pleasure in touch was inevitable and potentially problematic, and yet parents, teachers, and other intimate caretakers were, for the sake of both the children and their relationships with them, obliged to touch children comfortingly and affectionately. It is argued that if affectionate, firm touch is necessary to both our being and our being “becomingly,” then it is a right.
