Table Of ContentJohn Bowlby and Attachment
Theory
John Bowlby (1907–1990) has been described as ‘one of the three or
four most important psychiatrists of the twentieth century’. In this book
Jeremy Holmes provides a focused and coherent account of Bowlby’s
life and work, based on his writings and those of the ‘post-Bowlbians’,
as well as interviews with members of his family and with psychoanalysts
who knew him.
Bowlby’s Attachment Theory is one of the major theoretical
developments in psychoanalysis this half-century. Combining the
rigorous scientific empiricism of ethology with the subjective insights of
psychoanalysis, it has had an enormous impact in the fields of child
development, social work, psychology, psychotherapy and psychiatry.
Jeremy Holmes examines the origins of Bowlby’s ideas, and presents
the main features of Attachment Theory and their relevance to
contemporary psychoanalytic psychotherapy. He looks at the processes
of attachment and loss, and reviews recent experimental evidence linking
secure attachment in infancy with the development of ‘autobiographical
competence’. He also provides fascinating insights into the history of
the psychoanalytic movement, and considers the ways in which
Attachment Theory can help in understanding society and its problems.
John Bowlby and Attachment Theory will be essential reading for all
students of psychotherapy, counselling, social work, psychology and
psychiatry, and for professionals working in those fields.
Jeremy Holmes is Consultant Psychiatrist/Psychotherapist at the
North Devon District Hospital.
The Makers of Modern Psychotherapy
Series editor: Laurence Spurling
This series of introductory, critical texts looks at the work and
thought of key contributors to the development of psychodynamic
psychotherapy. Each book shows how the theories examined affect
clinical practice, and includes biographical material as well as a
comprehensive bibliography of the contributor’s work.
The field of psychodynamic psychotherapy is today more fertile
but also more diverse than ever before. Competing schools have
been set up, rival theories and clinical ideas circulate. These
different and sometimes competing strains are held together by a
canon of fundamental concepts, guiding assumptions and
principles of practice.
This canon has a history, and the way we now understand and
use the ideas that frame our thinking and practice is palpably
marked by how they came down to us, by the temperament and
experiences of their authors, the particular puzzles they wanted
to solve and the contexts in which they worked. These are the
makers of modern psychotherapy. Yet despite their influence, the
work and life of some of these eminent figures is not well known.
Others are more familiar, but their particular contribution is open
to reassessment. In studying these figures and their work, this
series will articulate those ideas and ways of thinking that
practitioners and thinkers within the psychodynamic tradition
continue to find persuasive.
Laurence Spurling
John Bowlby and
Attachment Theory
Jeremy Holmes
London and New York
First published 1993
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2001.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis
or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to
www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
© 1993 Jeremy Holmes
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted Or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
Mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter Invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any Information
storage or retrieval system, without permission In writing from
the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of
Congress
ISBN 0-203-13680-2 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-17585-9 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-07729-X (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-07730-3 (pbk)
To Jacob, Matthew, Lydia and Joshua; also to Ben,
Polly, Matilda and Flora; and in memory of Tabitha.
By the same author
The Values of Psychotherapy (with R. Lindley), (1991
[1989]),Oxford University Press.
A Textbook of Psychotherapy in Psychiatric Practice
(Editor),(1991), Churchill Livingstone.
Between Art and Science: Essays in Psychotherapy and Psychiatry
(1992), Routledge.
The Good Mood Guide (with R. Holmes), (1993), Orion.
Contents
List of illustrations ix
Acknowledgements x
1 Introduction 1
Part I Origins
2 Biographical 13
3 Maternal deprivation 37
Part II Attachment Theory
4 Attachment, anxiety, internal working models 61
5 Loss, anger and grief 86
6 Attachment Theory and personality development: the
research evidence 103
Part III Implications
7 Bowlby and the inner world: Attachment Theory and
psychoanalysis 127
8 Attachment Theory and the practice of psychotherapy 149
9 Attachment Theory and psychiatric disorder 177
10 Attachment Theory and society 200
11 Epilogue 210
Glossary of terms relevant to Attachment Theory 217
viii John Bowlby and Attachment Theory
Chronology of John Bowlby 225
Bibliography 228
Index 244
Illustrations
FIGURES
3.1 Developmental pathways from maternal deprivation 52
4.1 The attachment behavioural system 76
4.2 Patterns of insecure attachment 80
6.1 The evolution of attachment patterns 118
6.2 Anna and the holding environment 121
7.1 The anxiously attached infant 142
TABLES
6.1 The continuity of secure and insecure attachment 115
7.1 Classical, Object-Relations and Attachment Theories
compared 133
8.1 Clinical aspects of insecure-avoidant and dismissive
attachment 163
