Psychology is full of revolutionary experiments, research, and cases. Among all this, there is also the experience of Victor, nicknamed “The Wild Child of Aveyron”, who left an indelible mark on the history of psychology.
Experiments on the collapse of society, experiments on personality splits, experiments on the effect of power and authority on character… History is full of amazing experiments to understand human nature. “Wild Child of Aveyron“Although not exactly an experiment, he is a character who has become one of the cornerstones of psychology.
He grew up completely devoid of human communication. The interesting event starring a child reveals that the early stages of life in human development may be much more critical than we think. This series of events, which continues to be scrutinized by those who are interested in the science of psychology, even after centuries, took place in France in 1797. Lacaune It starts in a forest area near a village called
The locals find a naked boy covered in dirt.
The child, who does not open his mouth with a knife and does not easily approach anyone with his aggressive movements, becomes the center of attention in a short time. However, this first meeting ends after the boy escapes from the village and disappears into the forest after a short time. untraceable for a long time victorA year later, he was caught again by three people in the same area.
This time, Victor is being looked after in the best way for a week.
Victor, who was fed, dressed in warm clothes and cleaned well, must not have been satisfied with the attention that all the villagers domestication Despite his efforts, he once again flees the village. But this time his escape does not last long, and he starts to return to the village from time to time, of his own accord, albeit only when he is hungry.
Three years later, in 1800, the boy was caught for the last time, this time not to be released into nature.
Child cared for by the peasants, brother of Napoleon by Lucien Bonaparte As far as his ears go, experts are assigned to examine him. Experts say that the child does not speak at all and only makes strange animal-like sounds, again just like animals. walking on hands and feet is reporting. It is understood that the boy who took the name Victor during this period is about 11-12 years old and has just entered puberty.
Victor is being trained by Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard, one of the famous doctors of the time.
The case is beginning to be followed with interest by both the villagers and people in other parts of France, and hundreds of visitors every day He flocks to the house where he is to see the child. The education of Victor, who is not interested in anything other than eating and sleeping, continues to be aggressive and alert at all times, cannot pay attention to anything, cannot even distinguish between hot and cold, and dips his hand in boiling water to eat potatoes many times, continues intensively.
The first development occurs months later.
Victor, who first begins to distinguish between hot and cold, then begins to control the temperature of the water before taking a bath, to get under blankets to keep him warm when it gets cold, and to hug people to feel peaceful. Following that too the first time you criedi is seen. Even though literacy education was tried to be given later, even after 5 years of education. is able to understand and distinguish only a few words. He never manages to speak; just like a parrot, he manages to say some words in any situation.
It is also seen that the child begins to develop empathy after a while.
After the death of her babysitter’s husband, the child, who habitually puts the same number of plates on the table as he puts on the table every evening, immediately removes the plate from the table after the babysitter starts to cry loudly and never puts it down again. Being aware that people’s crying may be related to a negative emotion or situation and changing their behavior accordingly, have empathy pointing out.
After a period of 6 years, the education is terminated.
After the end of his education, he lived for about twenty more years. died at the age of 40 Thus ends Victor’s story. On the other hand, questions such as how old the child was released into nature and how he managed to survive remain in mind.
One of the important conclusions drawn from Victor’s experiences is the development of language use.critical processThere remains a theory claiming that there is a period called ‘ ‘, and according to this, after a certain age, a person who has never been exposed to language can never be taught a language. If you want to learn more about Victor’s story, The Wild Child You can watch the movie.
resources: NYTimes, French Culture