By "mothering function" we mean the process in which an adult takes care of an infant; that is, a theoretically capable, self-sufficient person caring for a helpless, needy, dependent individual. We call this function "mothering" because it usually is performed by a mother, although it can be done by others. There are basic ingredients in mothering which we can call "practical" or "mechanical." They consist of feeding, holding, clothing, and cleaning the infant, protecting it from harm, and providing motility for it. Along with these are the more subtle ingredients of tenderness, of awareness and consideration of the needs and desires of the infant, and of appropriate emotional interaction with it. These latter qualities which we subsume under the title of "motherliness" are a most important accompaniment of the mechanical ingredients. They provide the atmosphere in which the other functions are performed, and profoundly affect the response of the infant, its immediate well-being, and its subsequent development.

Physical abuse of infants is associated more with breakdown in motherliness than with deficits in the other aspects of mothering. The infants in our study were almost always well-fed, clean, and well-clothed, but the emotional attitudes of the one who was caring for the infant were fraught with constant tension and frequent disruptions. If is often during the mothering acts of feeding, cleaning, and comforting the infant that abuse occurs. This is because of difficulties in maintaining an attitude of motherliness, not because of inability or lack of desire on the part of the caretaker to perform the care taking acts.

Breakdown and failure in the more mechanical aspects of mothering such as cleaning and feeding, produce the picture of the "neglected child." There is a striking difference 'n these two forms of caretaker-infant interaction. The neglecting parent responds to distressing disappointment by giving up and abandoning efforts to even mechanically care for the child. The abusing parent seems to have investment in the active life of the child and moves in to punish it for its failure and to make it "shape up" and perform better.

There is still a lack of firm knowledge about the origin and development of the components of human mothering behavior. We do not see in the human mother those automatic, efficient, care taking behaviors characteristic of sub primate mammals with their offspring. Motherliness is not

confined to biological mothers. It can appear full-fledged in adoptive mothers, foster mothers, matrons in foundling homes, and nurses. Children, even very young boys as well as girls, can demonstrate it with each other and with babies. Even men can show it, and we feel that it is a breakdown of motherliness in the man's attempts to do mothering which is crucial in his abuse of infants.