British psychiatrist, the son of an eminent surgeon. He studied at Cambridge, and became staff psychologist at the London Child Guidance Clinic (193740). After World War 2 he moved to the Tavistock Clinic (194672), to become chairman of the department for children and parents (194668). His early research concerned crime and juvenile delinquency, but he is best known for his work on the effects of maternal deprivation upon the mental health and emotional development of children.
John Bowlby (February 26, 1907 - September 2, 1990) was a British developmental psychologist in the psychoanalytic tradition, notable for his pioneering work in attachment theory.
Background
John Mostyn Bowlby was born in London to an upper-middle-class family. His father, Sir Anthony Bowlby, first Baronet Bowlby, was surgeon to the King's Household, but with a tragic history; When Bowlby was almost four years old, his beloved nanny, who was actually his primary caretaker in his early years, left the family.
At the age of seven, he was sent off to boarding school.
He died September 2, 1990 at his summer home in Isle of Skye, Scotland. He had married Ursula Longstaff, herself the daughter of a surgeon, on April 16, 1938, and they had four children, including (Sir) Richard Bowlby, who succeeded his uncle as third Baronet Bowlby and is active in continuing his father's work.
Career
John Bowlby’s intellectual career began at Trinity College, University of Cambridge, where he studied psychology and pre-clinical sciences. After Cambridge he took some time to work with maladjusted and delinquent children, then at the age of twenty-two enrolled at University College Hospital in London.
During World War II, he was a Lieutenant Colonel, RAMC.
Because of his previous work with maladapted and delinquent children, he became interested in the development of children and began work at the Child Guidance Clinic in London.
Bowlby was interested in finding out the actual patterns of family interaction involved in both healthy and pathological development. He focused on how attachment difficulties were transmitted from one generation to the next. The three most important experiences for Bowlby’s future work and the development of attachment theory were his work with:
Maladapted and delinquent children.The most famous and enduring work of John Bowlby was theorizing about attachment styles of infants with primary caretakers. He observed and generalized from his observations, and hence developed a scientific theory (attachment theory). In his view, attachment behavior was an evolutionary survival strategy for protecting the infant from predators, and attachment theory reflects that.
Legacy
Attachment theory is highly regarded as a well-researched explanation of infant and toddler behavior and in the field of infant mental health. It is hard to imagine any clinical work with an infant or toddler that is not about attachment, since dealing with that issue has been shown to be an essential developmental task for that age period.
Following Bowlby‘s leads, a few established child-development researchers and others have suggested developmentally appropriate mental health interventions to sensitively foster emotional relationships between young children and adults. These approaches used tested techniques which were not only congruent with attachment theory, but with other established principles of child development. In addition, nearly all mainstream approaches for the prevention and treatment of disorders of attachment attachment disorder use attachment theory.
Some clinicians have used Bowlby's theory as the basis for controversial interventions (commonly termed "holding therapy") that have no acceptance among established practitioners or researchers and which do not meet standards set by various groups, such as the National Association of Social Workers, the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, or the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, to name a few. (Attachment & Human Development, Special Issue: Current perspectives on attachment disorders, edited by Thomas O'Connor and Charley Zeanah, vol 5 #3, Sept. 2003)
Selected Bibliography
Bowlby, J. ISBN 1-56821-757-9 Bowlby, J. 1965 2nd edition contains 2 additional chapters by Mary Salter Ainsworth) Bowlby, J. Bowlby, J. Bowlby, J. Bowlby, J. (1988) A Secure Base: Parent-Child Attachment and Healthy Human Development. (1992) "The origins of attachment theory". (1993) John Bowlby and Attachment Theory. Human development: biological - psychologicalStages: Infancy | Late adulthood
Child development | Senescence
Theorists-theories: John Bowlby-attachment | Erik Erikson-psychosocial
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