beginning my doctoral studies at a time when Dr. John Bowlby still kept office
hours at the Tavistock Clinic, where he spent most of his working life.
2.7 – John Bowlby: Attachment Theory
[JOHN BOWLBY: Attachment Theory Across Generations c. 2007] HOWARD STEELE, PhD: Hello, I'm Howard Steele. I was privileged to study and work in England for 18 years, beginning my doctoral studies at a time when Dr. John Bowlby still kept office hours at the Tavistock Clinic, where he spent most of his working life. JOHN BOWLBY: Attachment is an integral part of human nature, from the cradle to the grave. It – it may be… it, it – it's very prominent in early childhood. But it's true of you and me today. HOWARD STEELE: Dr. John Bowlby was a psychiatrist whose life spanned most of the 20th century. He devoted his life to understanding and promoting mental health, seeing the origins of such health as being the ability to rely on another person when we are distressed. WOMAN: It's kind of hard for me because I didn't know at first how to treat my children, so – HOWARD STEELE: And to share joys with them as well. WOMAN: Like, you know, she's going to become somebody. You know? That was – [Influences on Bowlby's work] NARRATOR: [Dr. Konrad Z. Lorenz, Ethology] From ethology, the detailed study of animal behavior based on Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, Bowlby saw the significance of the twoway bond between infant and mother, so vital to survival. [Professor Erik Erikson, Psychoanalysis] From psychoanalysis, he understood the profound and long-term emotional impact of early relationships. Like Erik Erikson, fellow psychoanalyst, Bowlby was more concerned with the impact of real-life experiences throughout the entire life course than either Freud or Klein had been. [Professor J. Piaget, Professor Barbel Inhelder, Cognitive Psychology] And from cognitive psychology, Bowlby came to see that humans arrive at, and organize, their SOOMO PUBLISHING ssc.webtexts.com
beliefs about themselves in relation to others in the world, based on mental models or schemas, as suggested to him by the work of Jean Piaget and Barbel Inhelder. [Elements of Attachment Theory] HARRY: Well, I finished my college, my sixth form college [02:14] – NARRATOR: In the best of circumstances, one has a model of the attachment figures as available, loving, and understanding, as Harry continues to show us, now, at age 20. HARRY: … bio-medical, science. I'm really enjoying it. NARRATOR: Bowlby thought that internal working models, once formed in early childhood through many thousands of interactions, tend to persist and influence social relations and mental health later in life. The long-lasting influence of one's internal working models have been borne out by the results of many ongoing longitudinal research projects, like the one my wife and I began in London in the 1980s, studying the cross-generational effects of attachment relationships in 100 families. One of which was Harry's. [Psychotherapy From An Attachment Perspective] NARRATOR: The therapeutic task, described by Bowlby, is one being pursued at many counseling, social work, and psychological services. WOMAN: Fifteen is still a very little child. WOMAN: And then at the same time, taking on a world's – the world's problems. Maybe I can affect this person. MAN: I mean, I had to be the stronger person too because my mother had a drug addiction. I had a little sister. So there was times that my mother would have an overdose or something, I would have to put her in the shower and just clean her back up, until she come to her right state. I had to learn how to cook, wash, sew. Me going through that at the age of ten, SOOMO PUBLISHING ssc.webtexts.com
take care of my little five-year-old sister, so I learned all myself, hey, this is supposed to be my secure woman, my secure everything. Like, how can I rely on this woman? I've seen her do this. I've seen her do this. So is every woman like this? WOMAN: Really, what it – what it's showing me is that, you know, [REVISE AND UPDATE Internal Working Models] it's okay to depend on someone else. [Attachment Across the Life Cycle] NARRATOR: Falling in love is the creation of a new attachment, and maintaining it is loving someone. [04:22] And when couple love thrives, so too, does parent/child love. Bowlby frequently ended the chapters and talks that he gave to (inaudible)…, a society that values its children, must cherish their parents. [DAVIDSON films, www.davidsonfilms.com]
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