Despite decades of progress, we’re still wrestling with major human problems. As psychiatrist Paul Holinger, MD, writes in his new book, Affect, Cognition, and Language as Foundations of Human Development, “Here we are, some 80 years from the Germans’ Nazi propaganda, dealing with anti-vax theories in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the QAnon conspiracy, climate-change opponents, and significant bias, prejudice, and racism” (2025, p. 143). To solve these problems, he says, we need to understand how early childhood development influences our behavior.
To find out more about this, I interviewed Dr. Holinger, Professor of Psychiatry (Retired) at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago and former Dean of the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute.
Our Vital Developmental Foundation
Dr. Holinger’s work reveals the vital foundation of affects, cognition, and language, what he calls the “triad of information processing systems,” that we develop from infancy.
- Affects or feelings, are our “reactions to stimuli which motivate our behaviors.” According to Dr. Holinger, there are two positive affects: interest and enjoyment. Surprise is a “resetting affect,” and our negative affects include distress, anger, fear, shame, and disgust. All these affects have corresponding facial features in infants.
- Cognition involves our thinking, memory, learning, and self-reflection.
- Language is using words and symbols to express our perceptions and ideas.
As young children, Dr. Holinger says, we need caring interactions with “good people who focus on positive affects” and help us feel safe. Without these caring relationships, we deteriorate. He points to the research of René Spitz (1949), who studied orphans in institutions that provided food and basic physical needs but failed to provide nurturing human interactions. Starved for affection, these children experienced distress, fear, and shame. Many of them died.
The Results of Abusive Childhood Environments
We now know that children who grow up with emotional and physical abuse, drug addiction, mental illness, poverty, homelessness, crime, and domestic violence can suffer from fear, anxiety, and depression (Hughes et al., 2017). Dr. Holinger says that these unfortunate children “are more fearful, more likely to be under distress, to be angry, and to have the sense of shame.” And “with shame,” he says, “comes a lack of being able to take charge and to make something out of themselves.” If children are physically punished, he explains, “They don’t get a sense of safety and belonging.” When children grow up in abusive environments, their unmet emotional needs remain as lasting impediments to living a healthy, balanced life.
Resilience and a Ray of Hope
Yet even with emotional deprivation, there’s still hope. As Emmy Werner, PhD, and Ruth Smith, PhD, (1992) found in their pioneering research on resilience, when young people grow up in an atmosphere of poverty, abuse, addiction, and neglect, just one caring adult can make all the difference. A neighbor, teacher, coach, or other adult who really sees them can bring them hope, lighting their way to a better life. Dr. Holinger calls this relationship a “therapeutic alliance,” and points to Helen Beiser PhD’s (1988) study of tutoring a 9-year-old orphaned African American boy who not only learned to read but developed a healthier sense of identity. Dr. Holinger also cites research (Olds et al., 2002) showing how at-risk mothers and their children who received support from visiting nurses became emotionally and physically healthier with fewer drug problems and greater well-being than those without visiting nurses.
Effects of Emotional Deprivation on America Today
To understand why so many people today are attracted to violent cults and conspiracy theories, Dr. Holinger says, we need to “go back to the roots of their negative affects—the distress they feel, the anger, the fear, the shame.” Without early caring relationships or therapeutic interventions, emotionally deprived young people grow up with an underlying sense of fear, distress, and anger. Then, Dr. Holinger explains, “poor social conditions” can mobilize them, causing them to lash out in anger, rage, and retribution. He points to the negative aftereffects of World War I on the German people, who experienced humiliation, shame, and economic deprivation that primed them for Hitler’s Nazi extremism.
Extremist groups today offer emotionally distressed people an emotional home. They give these people a reason for what they feel, a sense of belonging, cohesion, and an outlet for their rage. Dr. Holinger also explains that extremist groups offer people someone to blame for their poor conditions, for “in order to be in this violent group, you’ve got to have an enemy.”
Seeking Understanding
In order to heal our broken communities, Dr. Holinger says, we need to look beneath the discordant surface to discover the emotional causes of prejudice, polarization, and violence. He explains that not only are emotionally deprived people prone to distress and anger against others, but human beings share with other animals an innate tendency to “discern differences.” This ability helped our ancestors survive when they lived in small tribal groups and an approaching stranger could mean danger—an attack or invasion. Today, if people see someone different as a threat to their safety, this survival instinct can lead to prejudice and racism.
Conspiracy Theories Essential Reads
To overcome such fear and prejudice, Dr. Holinger emphasizes the vital role of education. He urges us to study evolution and history to expand our understanding, and to learn more about how childhood deprivation can make us susceptible to prejudice, polarization, and violent extremism.
What We Can Do to Repair Our Broken World
In our broken world today, each of us can make a difference. As research on resilience shows, one person can positively change a young person’s life.
You could be that “one person” who can help a young person in your family or community move from emotional deprivation to resilience and hope. Dr. Holinger encourages each of us to:
- Learn more about child development—get training or take a class.
- Play with babies and young children.
- Join an organization like the US Alliance to End the Hitting of Children that works to end physical punishment.
- Become a tutor.
- Do volunteer work with young people.
- Become a mentor.
- Simply talk with young people in your neighborhood—and listen.
The wisdom and bonding across generations is what holds our culture together. When we reach out to our neighbors with greater care and compassion, we can create a bond of acceptance and belonging that keeps them from the darkness of extremist cults by bringing them the light of hope.
___________________
This post is for informational purposes and should not substitute for psychotherapy with a qualified professional.
© 2025 Diane Dreher, All Rights Reserved.
