By Alex Beam, Globe Columnist, 3/16/2004

In the first chapter of her new book, "Opening Skinner's Box," Lauren Slater tackles the disturbing myth of Deborah Skinner, the daughter of controversial Harvard psychologist B.F. Skinner. Professor Skinner was a giant in the field of behavioral psychology -- he popularized the phrase "positive reinforcement" -- and achieved cult status for his best-selling book "Walden Two," his vision of a utopian society.

Slater writes about the legend of Deborah, whom her father kept "caged for two full years, placing within her cramped square space bells and food trays and all manners of mean punishments and bright rewards, and he tracked her progress on a grid. And then, when she was thirty-one and frankly psychotic, she sued him for abuse in a genuine court of law, lost the case, and shot herself in a bowling alley in Billings, Montana. Boom-boom went the gun."

Later, Slater describes her efforts to find Skinner, whose sister told Slater that Deborah is an artist living in England. "I never found her," Slater writes in her conclusion. "I'm sure she is alive, but I did not come across any data that could convince me of her mental status."

Oops. "It's libelous," Skinner tells me by phone from London, where she has been living and working as an artist for 25 years. "Lauren Slater could have contacted me to find out if I was psychotic, or still present on this earth, or fond of bowling. She's just done this to make a good story."

Skinner is aggrieved and is backing up her anger with legal action. Her lawyers have written to Slater's British publisher, Bloomsbury, claiming that their client has been "seriously libeled" and alluding to Slater's "wholly inadequate attempts to locate our client." The letter asks for a retraction, unspecified damages, and reimbursement of legal costs. Compared with American statutes, British libel laws heavily favor plaintiffs, and small damage payments are not uncommon.

"We're not after them to pulp the book," says Skinner, adding that she would settle for a public retraction and payment of her legal costs. "I would like to get Lauren Slater where it hurts, which is her reputation. Unfortunately she's not an academic, but she's a journalist. Why should she come out of this well when she's harmed other people?"

Skinner's story is a fascinating footnote in the annals of psychology. Her brief biography, posted on an art dealer's website, notes that she spent the first 2 1/2 years of her life in her father's controversial "Baby Box," an alternative to the crib. "It was a climate controlled cabinet in which a baby lived being removed for changing and cuddles, feeding and bathing," the biography explains. "Nylon fabric stretched across the bottom of the box -- in hammock-like fashion -- designed to catch excess liquids from the child, allowing it to drip through the cloth into a pan. Openings covered with fine mesh netting, protected the baby against flying insects."

"My early childhood, it's true, was certainly unusual -- but I was far from unloved," Skinner wrote last week in the Guardian newspaper, blasting Slater. "I loved my father dearly. He was fantastically devoted and affectionate." She continued: "The effect on me? Who knows? I was a remarkably healthy child, and -- I've enjoyed good health since then, too, though that may be my genes."

Slater says she "tried very hard to find [Skinner] in 2000," while researching the book. She says she didn't have access to an electronic database, which might have produced a 1979 Globe interview with Skinner. Furthermore, some of the Internet material -- Skinner's biography, for instance -- wasn't on the Web then.

Why didn't she ask Deborah's sister Julie? "I recall asking her sister how to get in touch with her and not getting a direct answer," Slater says. "If she had asked me where my sister was, I would have told her," Julie Skinner Vargas says.

I have met Slater a couple of times, and I am a fan of her sharp, elliptical prose. At the end of our conversation, I offer her some unsolicited advice: "Lauren, if you have to discuss this again, I think you should at least say you are sorry." "I don't know what I should say," Slater answers. "I am not sure I should be talking about this at all."

Alex Beam is a Globe columnist. His e-dress is beam@globe.com.

This story ran on page E1 of the Boston Globe on 3/16/2004. © Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.

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