Bowlby, John

John Bowlby was born on 26th February in 1907. He was born into an upper-middle-class family that consisted of parents Anthony Bowlby, a British army officer and surgeon for the King’s household, and Mary Bridget Mostyn. Bowlby’s parents believed that spending too much time with their children would make them spoiled, and so limited the amount of time they interacted with their children in the day. Bowlby would usual see his mother for one hour after tea per day, with the family nursemaid looking after Bowlby and his five siblings the rest of the time. Bowlby was sent to boarding school at the age of seven where he reported having negative experiences. These childhood are experiences are likely what drew Bowlby to studying attachment to primary caregivers, and ultimately creating his attachment theory.

In 1921, Bowlby trained to be a naval officer at the Britannia Royal Naval College before enrolling at Trinity College, Cambridge to study medicine. A couple of years into his degree, Bowlby’s focus shifted towards psychology and he graduated university in 1928. Following his graduation, Bowlby spent the next year working in schools designed for children with behavioural difficulties, inspiring him to pursue a career in child psychiatry.

Bowlby then studied medicine at the University College Hospital and joined the British Psychoanalytic Institute. After gaining his medical qualification in 1933 Bowlby began training in adult psychiatry in London at the Maudsley Hospital, before later working as a psychiatrist for children with behavioural difficulties at the London Child Guidance Clinic. Here, Bowlby gained inspiration for his attachment theory due to the school’s belief about why children have behavioural issues – they believed that it was due to previous negative experiences within the child’s family, which is something that particularly resonated with Bowlby and reminded him of his own absent parents. Bowlby used this experience to conduct his own research at the Tavistock Institute in London into children’s attachments to their primary caregivers, specifically focusing on the effects of separation between the two. This is where he developed his famous and influential attachment theory.

Bowlby was a pioneer in the area of attachment, with his main theory suggesting that children who fail to develop a close attachment to a primary caregiver within a critical period will experience behavioural issues later in life. Bowlby’s inspiration for his research in part came from his own childhood experiences, but also the evacuation of children during the Second World War – many children were separated from their primary caregivers for an extended period of time, and the extent of effects of this were not yet known. This theory has become a cornerstone of early childhood education and care, and emphasises the importance of children growing up in a secure, safe, and stable environment. His research has led to many impactful policies and practices being developed, such as trauma-informed approaches to child education, family-based care being prioritised in social work, and early-intervention programmes for children who may be at risk. Bowlby also highlighted the importance of early childhood attachment figures on later relationships, and argued that a child’s first attachment is what they will then base all future relationships on, as well as having effects on how the child perceives themselves and others.

In 1950, Bowlby became a mental health consultant for the World Health Organisation where he wrote a report on the mental health of homeless children in Europe. This became one of Bowlby’s most influential pieces of work, and his research into attachment inspired many other well-known psychologists, for example Mary Ainsworth who developed the Strange Situation and identified different attachment styles.

Bowlby continued to develop his work into attachment throughout the rest of his life, working alongside many other influential psychologists. Bowlby died at his summer home on the Isle of Skye on 2nd September, 1990.