Attachment Theory and Research

A Reader

Tommie Forslund, Robbie Duschinsky, Tommie Forslund, Robbie Duschinsky

• Editorial: Wiley-Blackwell
• Año: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781119657903
• Edición: 1
• Categoría: Psicología
• Categoría: Psicopatología

As interest in attachment theory continues to grow, misconceptions of the theory are becoming increasingly common. Important texts on major theoretical and empirical contributions are often too extensive for non-specialist readers or not readily available to clinicians. Designed to address a significant gap in literature, Attachment Theory and Research: A Reader presents a carefully curated selection of book chapters and journal articles on the subject—complemented by previously unpublished material by the founder of the theory. This valuable new resource provides practitioners, students, policymakers, and general readers an accessible and up-to-date view of the concepts, development, and diversity of attachment theory.

The Reader comprises 15 succinct chapters by many of the most influential researchers in the theory, covering the basis of attachment theory and the current state of the field. The book brings together a wide range of works, many of which challenge common assumptions and offer intriguing new insights on attachment theory and research. Topics include psychoanalytic theories of separation anxiety, concepts of anxiety, stress, and homeostasis, the origins of disorganized attachment, cultural differences in caregiving practices, reactive attachment disorder (RAD) and disinhibited social engagement disorder (DSED), the future prospects of attachment theory, and more.

1
Separation Anxiety¹

John Bowlby

Observations of Young Children

Since 1948 the Tavistock Child Development Research Unit has been concerned with recording the manifest responses which commonly occur when children between the ages of about 12 months and 4 years are removed from the mother figures ² to whom they are attached and remain with strangers. Preliminary papers and a scientific film have been published (Robertson & Bowlby, 1952; Robertson, 1953a, 1953b; Bowlby, 1953, 1954) and a comprehensive report by James Robertson and the writer is in preparation. In it we shall draw not only on Robertson’s own observations and those of other workers reported in the scientific literature, notably those of Burlingham and Freud (1942, 1944), and Heinicke (1956), but also on reports given us by mothers and nurses with first‐hand experience of the problem. Since there is a high consensus in these reports we regard it as firmly established empirically that all children of this age, except those who have already suffered considerable deprivation of maternal care or are seriously ill, react to the experience with shock and anxiety. Our confidence in the validity of these observations is something we wish to emphasize since it is not uncommon for those whose theories lead to expectations of a different kind to cast doubt on them. In our view it is the theories which are mistaken, not the observations, and it is with the theoretical issues raised by these data that this paper is concerned.

It is evident, however, that the nature and dynamics of the responses to the rupture of a social bond cannot be understood until there is some understanding of the nature and dynamics of the bond itself. It was because of this that in a recently published paper (Bowlby, 1958) I discussed how best the nature of the young child’s tie to his mother could be conceptualized. In it I advanced the view that instead of the tie being motivated by a secondary drive or one wholly based on orality, which are the most commonly held views today, it may be mediated by a number of instinctual response systems which are partially independent of one another and which wax and wane in activity at different periods of the infant’s and young child’s life. I suggested that much psycho‐analytic theory, by concentrating attention too narrowly either on the meeting of ‘physiological’ needs (e.g. for food and warmth) or on orality, may have led to the picture as a whole being seen out of perspective; and that other responses, particularly clinging and following which seem to reach their zenith in the second and third years, require far more attention than they have yet been given.

The reasons leading me to advance these views are clinical: traditional theory has seemed to me to account neither for the intense attachment of child to mother‐figure which is so conspicuous in the later months of the first year and throughout the second and third years of life, nor for the dramatic responses to separation from her which are the rule in these years. A formulation, based on a theoretical framework stemming from modern instinct theory, has seemed to me more promising. It is the line of thought begun in the previous paper that I shall pursue further in this one.

First let us consider the data.

Our observations³ concern healthy children of 15 to 30 months admitted to a hospital, perhaps for investigation or elective surgery, or to some other residential institution and there cared for in traditional ways. By traditional ways we mean that the child is handled by a succession of strange nurses, mainly students, who will variously bathe, feed, and change him. The nurses will be on shift duty, and often within a few weeks most will have moved to other departments. No matter how kind each may be in her fragment of care, there will be no nurse whom he can come to know or with whom he can enter into a stable relationship. He may see his mother for a short time each day, but it may be less often. In this context a child of 15 to 30 months who has had a normal relationship to his mother and has not previously been parted from her will commonly show a predictable sequence of behaviour. This sequence can usefully be broken into three phases according to what attitude to his mother is dominant. We describe these phases as those of protest, despair, and detachment.⁴ Though in presenting them it is convenient to differentiate them sharply, it is to be understood that in reality each merges into the next, so that the child may be for days or weeks in a state of transition from, or alternation between, one phase and another.

The initial phase, that of Protest, may last from a few hours to a week or more. During it the young child appears acutely distressed at having lost his mother and seeks to recapture her by the full exercise of his limited resources. He will often cry loudly, shake his cot, throw himself about, and look eagerly towards any sight or sound which might prove to be his missing mother. All his behaviour suggests strong expectation that she will return. Meantime he is apt to reject all alternative figures who offer to do things for him, though some children will cling desperately to a nurse.

During the phase of Despair, which succeeds protest, his preoccupation with his missing mother is still evident, though his behaviour suggests increasing hopelessness. The active physical movements diminish or come to an end, and he may cry monotonously or intermittently. He is withdrawn and inactive, makes no demands on the environment, and appears to be in a state of deep mourning. This is a quiet stage, and sometimes, clearly erroneously, is presumed to indicate a diminution of distress.

Because the child shows more interest in his surroundings, the phase of Detachment which sooner or later succeeds protest and despair is often welcomed as a sign of recovery. He no longer rejects the nurses, accepts their care and the food and toys they bring, and may even smile and be sociable. This seems satisfactory. When his mother visits, however, it can be seen that all is not well, for there is a striking absence of the behaviour characteristic of the strong attachment normal at this age. So far from greeting his mother he may seem hardly to know her; so far from clinging to her he may remain remote and apathetic; instead of tears there is a listless turning away. He seems to have lost all interest in her.

Should his stay in hospital or residential nursery be prolonged and should he, as is usual, have the experience of becoming transiently attached to a series of nurses each of whom leaves and so repeats for him the experience of the original loss of his mother, he will in time act as if neither mothering nor contact with humans had much significance for him. After a series of upsets at losing several mother‐figures to whom in turn he has given some trust and affection, he will gradually commit himself less and less to succeeding figures and in time will stop altogether taking the risk of attaching himself to anyone. Instead he will become increasingly self‐centred and, instead of directing his desires and feelings towards people, become preoccupied with material things such as sweets, toys, and food. A child living in an institution or hospital who has reached this state will no longer be upset when nurses change or leave. He will cease to show feelings when his parents come and go on visiting day; and it may cause them pain when they realize that, although he has an avid interest in the presents they bring, he has little interest in them as special people. He will appear cheerful and adapted to his unusual situation and apparently easy and unafraid of anyone. But this sociability is superficial: he appears no longer to care for anyone.

We have had some difficulty in finding the best term to denote this phase. In previous papers and in the early drafts of this one the term ‘denial’ was used. It gave rise to many difficulties, however, and is now abandoned in favour of the more purely descriptive term ‘detachment’. An alternative is ‘withdrawal’, but this has two disadvantages for my purpose. In the first place there is a danger that it might convey the picture of an inactive child withdrawn from the world, a picture that is the opposite of what often obtains. In the second, in psycho‐analytic writing it is commonly associated with libido theory and the idea of instinct as a quantity of energy which can be withdrawn, a model I am not using. Not only does the term ‘detachment’ have neither of these disadvantages, but it is a natural counterpart of ‘attachment’. The nature of the defence process, or processes, that give rise to it is of course a matter for detailed study. In an earlier publication (Bowlby, 1954) I have discussed briefly its relation to repression and I hope at a later date to give this further attention.

Returning now to the empirical data, I wish to emphasize that the behaviour seen in the phases of Protest and Despair is not, as is sometimes alleged, confined to children whose relations to their mothers are already impaired. Though we have no large series of well‐observed cases to quote, we are satisfied that there is clear evidence that it occurs in children whose previous relationships would be judged to have been anything between excellent and fairly unfavourable. It appears to be only in children whose relationships are already severely impaired, and who may therefore already be in a phase of Detachment, that such behaviour is absent.

In examining the theoretical problems raised by these observations it is convenient to consider them with reference to these three phases of behaviour. The phase of Pro...