Attachment Theory

Have you ever had that lonely feeling when your parents leave for work? Well don’t worry that’s normal because you have made an attachment to your parents. When something goes wrong your parents are your safe haven, you rely on them to keep you from being harmed. We are brought up that our parents are the ones we must rely on for our needs until we are at least eighteen. A man named John Bowlby proposed that we are born with the need to attach to someone and that if the attachment is disturbed then it will cause irreversible damage to a child.

John Bowlby was born February 26, 1907 in London. With very little interaction with his mother, the main caregiver to the six children was a nanny. Bowlby formed a deep attachment to the nanny. When Bowlby was four years old the nanny left and he felt a sense of deep loss. It impacted him deeply and was the reason he started his research on attachment. Bowlby was an academically gifted man and excelled well in everything that he did. Bowlby studied psychology at Trinity College, in Cambridge. At the University College Hospital in London, Bowlby studied medicine and enrolled in the institute for psychoanalysis. After Bowlby graduated he began working at the Maudsley Hospital as a psychoanalyst. During World War II Bowlby was a member of the Royal Army Medical Corps. Bowlby continued in the medical field as a Deputy Director of the Tavistock Clinic. In the 1950s, Bowlby worked briefly with the World Health Organization as a mental health consultant. At the Child Guidance Clinic in London, Bowlby began to conduct his research on attachment and child development. Bowlby married Ursula Longstaff and had four children. He passed away in 1990.

John Bowlby was a psychologist and...

... middle of paper ...

.... By making an attachment according to Bowlby you will have a normal life if nothing interferes with the process of making the attachment. If something was to interfere with the attachment then a child could suffer from a number of things. A child could turn to drug use to cope with the loss or situation. Another child might suffer severe depression. A child could have severe angry problems because of what happened to the main figure. Each child is different and you never know how a situation will affect a child.

Works Cited

John Bowlby (1907-1990). (2013, June 20). Retrieved from http://www.goodtherapy.org/famous-psychologists/john-bowlby.html

McLeod, S. (2007). Bowlby’s attachment theory . Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/bowlby.html

McLeod, S. (2009). Attachment theory . Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/attachment.html