No More Learning

PERCEPTUAL DEFENCE This, and the related concept of unconscious perception (Dixon and Henley 1991), refer to the apparently paradoxical phenomenon by which an individual can be shown to respond in behaviour to a stimulus without it reaching conscious awareness. Thus, for example, a subject presented with a neutral face and asked to judge whether it is 'happy' or 'sad', will be influenced by the simultaneous presentation of a subliminal word with positive or negative connotations. This provides experimental confirmation of the existence of unconscious thinking. Bowlby (1981c) uses this idea in his discussion of ungrieved loss to suggest that painful feelings are kept out of awareness but may nevertheless influence a person's state of mind and behaviour. By bringing these feelings into awareness - that is, by reducing the extent of perceptual defence - they are then available for processing (cf. 'working through'), leading to a more coherent and better adapted relationship to the world and the self.
SECURE BASE A term introduced by Ainsworth (1982) to describe the feeling of safety provided by an attachment figure. Children will seek out their secure base at times of threat - danger, illness, exhaustion or following a separation. When the danger
224 John Bowlby and Attachment Theory
has passed, attachment behaviour will cease, but only if it is there to be mobilised if needed will the child feel secure. The secure base phenomenon applies equally to adults. We all feel 'at home' with those whom we know and trust, and within such a home environment are able to relax, and pursue our projects, whether they be play, pleasure-seeking or work.
STRANGE SITUATION An experimental method devised by Ainsworth (Ainsworth et al. 1978) to study the ways in which one-year-old children can cope with brief separations from their care-givers. The child is left first with the experimenter and then alone while the mother goes out of the room for 3 minutes. The child's response to the separation, and more importantly to the re-union, is observed and rated from videotapes. On the basis of this rating children can be classified as secure (usually characterised by brief protest followed by return to relaxed play and interaction) or insecure, the latter being subdivided into avoidant (q. v. ) and ambivalent (q. v. ) patterns of insecurity. See Chapter 6, page 104, for a more detailed description.
SYSTEMIC Adjective derived from Systems Theory, a conceptual model used by family therapists (originating with information theory), in which the family as a whole is seen as a quasi-organism, or 'system', with its own rules and ways of behaving. Certain general principles apply to systems whatever their nature, whether they are cells of the body, whole organisms, families or social groups. These include the property of having a boundary, of the need for information flow between different parts of the system, of a hierarchy of decision-making elements, and of 'homeostasis', the tendency towards inertia. Attachment Theory is systemic in that it sees care-seeker and care-giver as a mutually interacting system regulated by positive and negative feedback. Pathological states can result from the operation of such feedback - for example, when a child clings ever more tightly to an abusing parent, because the source of the attack is also the object to which the child is programmed to turn in case of danger.
Chronology
1907 Born, Edward John Mostyn Bowlby, fourth child and second son of Sir Anthony and Lady May Bowlby. Lived at Manchester Square, London.
1914-25 Preparatory school and then Royal Naval College, Dartmouth.
1925-28 Trinity College, Cambridge.
1928-29 Teacher in progressive school for maladjusted children.
1929 Started clinical medical studies at University College Hospital, London, and psychoanalytic training at the Institute of Psycho-Analysis, London. Training analyst, Mrs Joan Riviere.
1933 Medical qualification. Psychiatric training at Maudsley Hospital, London, under Aubrey Lewis.
1937 Qualified as an analyst. Starts training in child analysis, supervisor, Melanie Klein.
1938 Married Ursula Longstaff, by whom two sons and two daughters.
1940 Publication: Personality and Mental Illness (with F. Durbin).
1937-40 Psychiatrist, London Child Guidance Clinic.
1940-45 Specialist Psychiatrist, Royal Army Medical Corps, mainly concerned with Officer Selection Boards.
1946 Publication, 'Forty-four juvenile thieves: their characters and home life'.
1946-72 Consultant Child Psychiatrist and Deputy Director, Tavistock Clinic, London, and Director, Department for Children and Parents.
226 John Bowlby and Attachment Theory
1950-72 Consultant in Mental Health, World Health Organisation.
1951 Publication of Maternal Care and Mental Health. 1957-58 Fellow, Centre for Advanced Study in the Behavioural
Sciences, Stanford, California.
1956-61 Deputy President, British Psycho-Analytical Society.
1958-63 Consultant, US National Institute of Mental Health.
1969 Publication of Attachment, first volume of the Attachment and Loss trilogy.
---- Visiting Professor in Psychiatry, Stanford University, California.
1963-72 Member, External Scientific Staff, Medical Research Council.
1972 Commander of the British Empire.
1973 Publication of Separation, second volume of the Attachment
and Loss trilogy.
1973 Travelling Professor, Australian and New Zealand College
of Psychiatrists.
1977 Honorary Doctor of Science, University of Cambridge.
1979 Publication of The Making and Breaking of Affectional Bonds.
1980 Publication of Loss, third volume of the Attachment and Loss trilogy.
1981 Freud Memorial Professor of Psychoanalysis, University College, London.
---- Foreign Honorary Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
1987 Celebration of Bowlby's 80th birthday with a conference at the Tavistock Clinic, bringing together researchers and clinicians, entitled 'The Effect of Relationships on Relationships'.
1988 Publication of A Secure Base.
Chronology 227
1989 Fellow of the British Academy.
1990 Publication of Charles Darwin, A New Biography.
---- Dies while in Skye, at his holiday home where much of his writing had been done.
Bibliography
PUBLICATIONS OF JOHN BOWLBY
Personal Aggressiveness and War, (1938) (with E. P. M. Durbin) London: Kegan Paul.
'The abnormally aggressive child', (1938) The New Era (Sept. -Oct. ). 'Hysteria in children', (1939a) in A Survey of Child Psychiatry, pp. 80-94,
Humphrey Milford (ed. ), London: Oxford University Press.
'Substitute homes', (1939) Mother and Child (official organ of the National
Council for Maternity and Child Welfare) X (1) (April): 3-7.
'Jealous and spiteful children', (1939) Home and School (Home and School
Council of Great Britain), IV(5): 83-5.
Bowlby, J. , Miller, E. and Winnicott, D. W. (1939) 'Evacuation of small children'
(letter), British Medical Journal (16 Dec. ): 1202-3.
'The influence of early environment in the development of neurosis and neurotic
character', (1940) International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 21: 154-78. 'Psychological aspects', (1940) ch. 16, pp. 186-96, in Evacuation Survey: A Report to the Fabian Society, Richard Padley and Margaret Cole (eds),
London: George Routledge & Sons Ltd.
'The problem of the young child', (1940c) Children in War-time, 21 (3): 19-30,
London: New Education Fellowships.
'Forty-four juvenile thieves: their characters and home life', (1944) International
Journal of Psychoanalysis, 25: 1-57 and 207-228; republished as a
monograph by Baillie`re, Tindall & Cox, London, 1946.
'Childhood origins of recidivism', (1945-46) The Howard Journal, VII (1): 30-
3, The Howard League for Penal Reform.
'The future role of the child guidance clinic in education and other services',
(1946a) Report of the Proceedings of a Conference on Mental Health,
(14-15 Nov. ), pp. 80-89, National Association for Mental Health. 'Psychology and democracy', (1946b) The Political Quarterly, XVII (1):
61-76.
'The therapeutic approach in sociology', (1947a) The Sociological
Review, 39: 39-49.
'The study of human relations in the child guidance clinic', (1947b)
Journal of Social Issues, III (2) (Spring): 35-41.
'The study and reduction of group tensions in the family, (1949a) Human
Relations, 2 (2) (April): 123-8.
'The relation between the therapeutic approach and the legal approach
Bibliography 229
to juvenile delinquency', (1949b) The Magistrate, VIII (Nov. ):
260-4.
Why Delinquency? The Case for Operational Research, (1949c) Report
of a conference on the scientific study of juvenile delinquency held at the Royal Institution, London 1 Oct. , and published by the National Association for Mental Health.
'Research into the origins of delinquent behaviour', (1950) British Medical Journal 1 March 11: 570).
Maternal Care and Mental Health, (1951) World Health Organisation, Monograph Series No. 2.
'Responses of young children to separation from their mothers', (with J. Robertson) (1952a) Courier, Centre International de l'Enfance, II (2): 66-78, and II (3): 131-42, Paris.
A two-year-old goes to hospital: a scientific film, (with J. Robertson) (1952b) Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 46: 425-7. 'A two-year-old goes to hospital', Bowlby, J. , Robertson, J. and
Rosenbluth, D. (1952) The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, VII:
82-94.
'A two-year-old goes to hospital: a scientific film', (with J. Robertson)
(1952b) Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 46: 425-7. 'The roots of parenthood', (1953) Convocation Lecture of the National
Children's Home (July).
Child Care and the Growth of Maternal Love, (1953b) (abridged version
of Maternal Care and Mental Health, 1951), London: Penguin Books;
new and enlarged edition, 1965.
'Critical phases in the development of social responses in man and other
animals', (1953c) New Biology, London: Penguin Books, pp. 25-
32.
'Some pathological processes set in train by early mother-child
separation', (1953d) Journal of Mental Science, 99: 265-72. 'Research strategy in the study of mother-child separation', (with M. G. Ainsworth) (1954) Courier, Centre International de l'Enfance, IV:
105-13.
'Family approach to child guidance: therapeutic techniques', (1955)
Transactions of the 11th Interclinic Conference for the Staffs of Child Guidance Clinics, National Association for Mental Health (26 March).
'The growth of independence in the young child', (1956) Royal Society of Health Journal, 76: 587-91.
'Psychoanalytic instinct theory', (1956) in Discussions on Child Development, vol. 1 , J. M. Tanner and B. Inhelder (eds), pp. 182- 87, London: Tavistock Publications.
'The effects of mother-child separation: a follow-up study', (with M. Ainsworth, M. Boston and D. Rosenbluth) (1956) British Journal of Medical Psychology, XXIX, parts 3 and 4 : 211-47.
'An ethological approach to research in child development', (1957) British Journal of Medical Psychology, XXX, part 4 : 230-40.
Can I Leave my Baby? , (1958a) The National Association for Mental Health.
230 John Bowlby and Attachment Theory
'A note on mother-child separation as a mental health hazard', (1958b) British Journal of Medical Psychology, XXXI, parts 3 and 4 :247-8. Foreword to Widows and their Families by Peter Marris, (1958c) London:
Routledge & Kegan Paul.
'The nature of the child's tie to his mother', (1958d) International Journal
of Psycho-Analysis, 39, part V : 350-73.
'Psychoanalysis and child care', (1958e) in Psychoanalysis and
Contemporary Thought, J. Sutherland (ed. ), London: Hogarth Press. 'Ethology and the development of object relations', (1960a) International
Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 41, parts IV - V : 313-17. 'Separation anxiety', (1960b) International Journal of Psycho-Analysis,
41, parts II - III : 89-113.
Comment on Piaget's paper: 'The general problems of the psychobiological
development on the child', (1960c) in Discussions on Child Development, vol. 4 , J. M. Tanner and B. Inhelder (eds), London: Tavistock Publications.
'Grief and mourning in infancy and early childhood', (1960d) The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, XV: 9-52.
'Separation anxiety: a critical review of the literature', (1961a) Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 1 (16): 251-69.
Note on Dr Max Schur's comments on grief and mourning in infancy and early childhood, (1961b) The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, XVI: 206-8.
'Childhood mourning and its implications for psychiatry', The Adolf Meyer Lecture, (1961c) American Journal of Psychiatry, 118 (6): 481-97.
'Processes of mourning', (1961d) International Journal of Psycho- Analysis, 42, parts IV - V : 317-40.
'Defences that follow loss: causation and function', (1962a) unpublished. 'Loss, detachment and defence', (1962b) unpublished.
'Pathological mourning and childhood mourning', (1963) Journal of the
American Psychoanalytic Association, XI (3) (July): 500-41.
Note on Dr Lois Murphy's paper 'Some aspects of the first relationship', (1964a) International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 45, part 1 :
44-6.
Security and Anxiety: Old Ideas in a New Light, (1964b) Proceedings of
the 15th Annual Conference of the Association of Children's Officers. Darwin's health (letter) (1965) British Medical Journal (10 April), p.
999.
Foreword to Brief Separations (1966) by C. M. Heinicke and I. J.
Westheimer, New York: International Universities Press; London:
Longmans Green.
'Effects on behaviour of disruption of an affectional bond', (1968a) in
Genetic and Environmental Influences on Behaviour, J. M. Thoday
and A-S Parkes, pp. 94-108, Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd.
'Security and anxiety', (1968b) chapter in The Formative Years, London:
BBC Publications.
'Affectional bonds: their nature and origin', (1969a) in Progress in Mental
Health, H. Freeman (ed. ), London: J. & A. Churchill.
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232 John Bowlby and Attachment Theory
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Contribution to symposium, 'Emanuel Peterfreund on information and systems theory', (1981b) The Psychoanalytic Review, 68: 187-90.
'Psychoanalysis as a natural science', (1981c) International Review of Psycho-Analysis, 8, part 3 : 243-56.
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Epilogue, (1982b) The Place of Attachment in Human Behaviour, Colin Murray Parkes and Joan Stevenson-Hinde (eds), pp. 310-13, New York: Basic Books; London: Tavistock Publications.
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