Bowlby, John
Bowlby, John 1907-1990
John Mostyn Bowlby was a British child psychiatrist who developed attachment theory, which posited that poor relationships (attachments) to caregivers in early childhood are the primary cause of most childhood disorders. When first introduced in the 1940s, attachment theory was shunned by the psychoanalytic movement because it conflicted with some principles of psychoanalysis that were popular at the time. Attachment theory is now highly regarded as a well-established and well-researched explanation of childhood behavioral and emotional problems.
Born in 1907 to an upper-middle-class family in London, Bowlby was raised in traditional British fashion by nannies, until he was sent to boarding school at age seven. After his 1928 graduation from the medical college at the University of Cambridge, he volunteered at two homes serving “maladjusted and delinquent” children. While there, he began to investigate the early influences of the family on later childhood difficulties. To further develop his ideas on the impact of family relationships on the mental health of children, Bowlby returned to school to study child psychiatry, psychoanalysis, and psychotherapy.
At the British Psychoanalytic Institute, Bowlby trained with instructors who were among the most influential analysts of the time, including Melanie Klein (1882-1960). Although trained primarily in adult psychiatry, Bowlby returned to his work with the London Child Guidance Clinic in 1937.
In 1940 Bowlby wrote the first of several controversial papers demonstrating his divergence from contemporary psychoanalytic trends. Bowlby stated that psychoanalysts should study the “nature of the organism, the properties of the soil, and their interaction” (1940, p. 23) rather than the unconscious drives or urges that characterized the Freudian approach to understanding childhood behaviors and emotions. While at the London Clinic, Bowlby began systematic research using patient case histories to link symptoms to parental “deprivation and separation” (Bretherton 1992, p. 761).
After World War II (1939–1945), Bowlby headed the Children’s Department at the Tavistock Clinic and began studying homeless children and children separated from their parents by hospitalization. In 1952 Bowlby and colleague James Robertson (1911–1988) filmed the documentary A Two-Year-Old Goes to Hospital, which alarmed clinicians regarding the impact of maternal separation, and influenced hospitals to change strict visitation policies.
In 1957 Bowlby presented the first formal statement of his theory that the mother-child attachment has an ethological-evolutionary foundation—that is, children, like the young of most animals, have innate behaviors promoting contact with the parent to enhance survival. Bowlby concluded that a child’s survival is more likely when the child is emotionally connected and in proximity to the mother. Bowlby eventually split completely from the Kleinian psychoanalytic school and established a research unit focused on mother-child separation, continuing his work with influential researchers, including Mary Ainsworth (1913–1999). Ainsworth’s research on the normative child-mother relationship across various cultures complemented Bowlby’s research. Ainsworth’s findings supported Bowlby’s theory of the importance of early parental relationships on the behavioral and emotional well-being of children.
Bowlby continued to develop attachment theory, and spent the last decades of his life, until his death in 1990, refining the clinical application of the theory.
SEE ALSO Ainsworth, Mary; Attachment Theory; Separation Anxiety
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bowlby, John. 1940. The Influence of Early Environment in the Development of Neurosis and Neurotic Character. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 21: 154–178.
Bretherton, Inge. 1992. The Origins of Attachment Theory: John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. Developmental Psychology 28: 759–775.
van Dijken, Suzan. 1998. John Bowlby: His Early Life, a Biographical Journey into the Roots of Attachment Theory. London: Free Association.
van Dijken, Suzan, René van der Veer, Marinus van Ijzendoorn, and Hans-Jan Kuipers. 1998. Bowlby Before Bowlby: The Sources of an Intellectual Departure in Psychoanalysis and Psychology. Journal of the History of Behavioral Sciences 34 (3): 247–269.
Melissa D. Grady