Pit of despair

A rhesus monkey infant in one of Harlow's isolation chambers. The photograph was taken when the chamber door was raised for the first time after six months of total isolation.^[1]

The pit of despair was a name used by American comparative psychologist Harry Harlow for a device he designed, technically called a vertical chamber apparatus, that he used in experiments on rhesus macaque monkeys at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the 1970s.^[2] The aim of the research was to produce an animal model of depression. Researcher Stephen Suomi described the device as "little more than a stainless-steel trough with sides that sloped to a rounded bottom":

A 3⁄8 in. wire mesh floor 1 in. above the bottom of the chamber allowed waste material to drop through the drain and out of holes drilled in the stainless-steel. The chamber was equipped with a food box and a water-bottle holder, and was covered with a pyramid top [removed in the accompanying photograph], designed to discourage incarcerated subjects from hanging from the upper part of the chamber.^[3]

Harlow had already placed newly born monkeys in isolation chambers for up to one year. With the "pit of despair", he placed monkeys between three months and three years old who had already bonded with their mothers in the chamber alone for up to ten weeks.^[4] Within a few days, they had stopped moving about and remained huddled in a corner.

^ Stephens 1986, p. 17.
^ Blum 1994, p. 95, Blum 2002, pp. 218-219. Blum 1994, p. 95: "... the most controversial experiment to come out of the Wisconsin laboratory, a device that Harlow insisted on calling the "Pit of despair."
^ Suomi 1971, p. 33.
^ McKinney, Suomi, and Harlow 1972.

[1] Stephens 1986, p. 17.

[2] Blum 1994, p. 95, Blum 2002, pp. 218-219. Blum 1994, p. 95: "... the most controversial experiment to come out of the Wisconsin laboratory, a device that Harlow insisted on calling the "Pit of despair."

[Suomi1971/33-3] Suomi 1971, p. 33.

[4] McKinney, Suomi, and Harlow 1972.

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