John Bowlby: biography (and the foundations of his Attachment Theory)
A brief journey through the life of one of the most valued developmental psychologists.
Perhaps today it seems obvious to think that the relationship between a mother and her baby is of great importance in human development, but this idea has not always been so evident.
The idea of the importance of attachment in infancy has often been present in different societies, but it would not be until the creation of the Attachment Theory that the effects of its presence or absence would be analyzed. This theory was elaborated by John Bowlby, of whom we leave you a brief biography..
Biography of John Bowlby
Edward John Mostyn Bowlby, more popularly known as John Bowlby, was born in London on February 26, 1907. Son of Sir Anthony Alfred Bowlby, who would have the title of baronet as surgeon of the royal household, and Mary Bridget Mostyn, he was educated as the fourth of six siblings in an affluent environment of the high bourgeois society.
At that time the upper classes used to leave their young children in the care of the service, having nannies to look after them.
Childhood
John Bowlby's early years were spent in the care of a nanny named Minnie, with little contact with his mother. However, when he was four years old, she left the family's domestic service, causing great suffering and a sense of loss to the little boy. Although she was replaced, the new nanny had a cold character that did not make him feel comfortable.
In 1914 the First World War broke out, which caused the child's father to enlist and become an absent figure of whom Bowlby and his siblings would hardly hear from as their mother did not share the contents of the letters he sent.
A few years later he would be sent to boarding school, partly as a way of keeping them protected in case of attack. This set of events would generate a great deal of Pain for him, which probably contributed to the fact that over time he was probably contributed to the fact that over time he felt the need to work on aspects such as bonding, separation anxiety and fear of separation.separation anxiety and fear of loss in children.
Academic training
After several years of boarding school, he studied at the Dartnorth Naval College. After that he tried to study medicine at Cambridge University, but during his studies he began to be attracted by psychology and abandoned them to later begin training in psychology at Trinity College of the same University of Cambridge. His main interest was in childhood and the developmental period..
After graduating, he began to make several studies on delinquent and maladjusted children, observing that they often came from broken families or had suffered abuse.
Joining the British Psychoanalytical Society
In 1929 he enrolled at the University College of London, completing his studies in Medicine (as well as Surgery) in 1934. But his preoccupations with psychology were not over, and he trained in psychoanalysis.
During 1937 he would be accepted as a psychoanalyst in the British Psychoanalytical Society, being analyzed by Riviere among others. After that he would be trained by Melanie Klein in child psychoanalysis and would begin to analyze minors. In spite of his link with this author, the perspectives of both will differ, giving Bowlby a greater importance to environmental and upbringing factors and to the real relationship between mother or maternal figure and child. This will cause him to be rejected and criticized by part of the psychoanalytic school for leaving aside such central aspects of this theory as the unconscious.
In 1938 he married Ursula Longstaff, with whom he would have four children. That same year he received the proposal of presiding over Trinity College, a proposal he accepted. In addition, he began working in the child psychiatry unit of a clinic in Canonbury. However, World War II would lead him to be drafted. He would rise to the rank of lieutenant colonel, in the medical corps.
Tavistock Clinic and participation in WHO
Once the war was over, he accepted a position as assistant director at the Tavistock Clinic in 1950, where he was able to observe first-hand the effects of the war on the psyche of his patients. In this clinic he would end up coinciding and working with Ainsworth (who would later expand his attachment theory and make numerous contributions in this regard).
That year Bowlby would also begin to be consulted by the World Health Organization in order to advise on the possible mental health of those children who had been left homeless after the war. This contribution would go a long way toward the eventual creation of the Charter of the Rights of the Child.
In later years, the author would carry out numerous experiments and studies that would allow him to understand child development.. Maternal Care and Mental Health would be one of his most prestigious publications of that time, being the preamble of his attachment theory.
Formulation of Attachment Theory
Bowlby's best known contribution to psychology would be developed between 1969 and 1980, giving birth to the Attachment Theory as a description of the relationship between the experiences of the child and his or her parents. description of the relationship between emotional experiences and relationships during infancy and behavior, establishing the need to forge a relationship with the child.establishing the need to forge secure attachment bonds.
Aspects such as the effects of abandonment or ambivalence and the innate need for maternal care that generates the feeling of attachment are worked on. Attachment is described as an adaptive mechanism based on the search for protection against possible hostile agents, as well as the consequences of cutting off this bond or not satisfying this need.
Death and legacy
Bowlby retired in 1972, although he continued to write for the rest of his life and to conduct research. This important psychoanalyst died in the Scottish Isle of Skye on September 2, 1990, at the age of eighty-three.
His legacy is extensive: although his theory has undergone several modifications and has been interpreted by many authors, it continues to have a great influence on the theory of psychoanalysis, his theory has undergone several modifications and has been interpreted by many authors, it continues to have a great influence on psychology, emphasizing the importance of affective bonding with our parental figures in childhood. with our parental figures in childhood. It has also served to develop different assessment techniques and mechanisms, such as Ainsworth's strange situation.
(Updated at Apr 13 / 2024)