The Effects of Social

Isolation
Alice Marie Harris (March 6, 1932 – August 6,
1942)
Was a feral child from Pennsylvania who was
raised in isolation because she was an
illegitimate child. From the age of five months to
six years, she was kept strapped down in the
attic of her home, malnourished and unable to
speak or move.
Sociologist Kingsley Davis took interest on Ana's
case and studied her.
when finally found and
removed from the
room in the
grandfather’s house
at the age of nearly six
years, the child could
not
talk, walk, or do
anything that showed
intelligence.…
  Davis visited Ana
10 days after she
was rescued.
 She could already
smile and respond
to simple stimuli.

She socialized with other people for only 10 days and

she could already smile.
  After a year, Ana
learned how to
walk and interact
with other people.
 She had a slow and
steady progress.

After a year and a half, she already learned how to

play with toys.
 However, that was
all there was to the
social progress of
Ana.
 She was socially
isolated from the
rest of the world for
5 years and it made
permanent damage
to the progress of
her brain.
 When she reached
age 8, her mental
capacity was that of
a 2-year-old.
 She only began to
utter her first words
at the age of 10.
This photo was published August 22, 1939,
about 18 months after her rescue.

She was discovered and rescued in 1938, but

died at the age of ten before she was able to
fully recover from hemorrhagic jaundice.
With the cases cited above, t would be clear that
social isolation could bring horrific circumstances
on the life of human beings.
our experience with interacting with other people
is so crucial that it shapes the way we think and
behave in a social environment.
We owe most of the things we know from
socialization.
Without socialization, there will be no personality
and the concept of the self will not emerge.
 Genie (born 1957) is the pseudonym of an
American feral child who was a victim of
severe abuse, neglect, and social isolation.

When she was approximately 20 months old,

her father began imprisoning her in a locked
room. During this period, he almost always
kept her strapped to a child's toilet or bound
Genie
her in a crib with her arms and legs
immobilized, forbade anyone from interacting
with her, provided her with almost no
stimulation of any kind, and left her severely
malnourished.
 The extent of her isolation prevented her
from being exposed to any significant
amount of speech, and she did not acquire
language during her childhood as a result.
Her abuse came to the attention of Los
Angeles child welfare authorities in
November 1970, when she was 13 years
Genie and 7 months old.

With intensive treatment, she became

physically healthy, but her language ability
remains that of a young child.
Those give us insights to the tragic effect of social
isolation.
Isolation is a natural thing to occur in human life.
Without socialization, we can hardly call ourselves
human beings.
Isolation can be considered as the converse of
socialization.
It refers to the separation of a man to his social world
thus depriving him of socialization
Thank
you