A Meeting of the Minds: John Bowlby Encounters Jean Piaget

Abstract

John Bowlby has several times asserted the complementarity between the theory of attachment and both ethology and Jean Piaget's theory. However, it remains unclear why the contribution of ethology and psychoanalysis on Bowlby's thought has been underlined by numerous authors, whereas the influence of Jean Piaget has been systematically neglected. In this article, we focus on the points of contact between these 2 outstanding scholars. To this purpose, 80 of Bowlby's writings have been perused (books, book chapters, and articles). Subsequently, the writings in which explicit references to Piaget's work appear have been selected. In particular, evidence of the influences of Piaget over Bowlby's thinking has been tracked down through the numerous quotes Bowlby made of Piaget and also analyzing the participation of both of them in an important interdisciplinary group during the 50s, the International Interdisciplinary Meetings on Child Psychology, convened by the World Health Organization. Furthermore, we have analyzed the Piagetian concepts which Bowlby used in his theory, such as object permanence and egocentrism, and the conceptual similarities between the 2 authors. Finally, we have highlighted the analogy between the Bowlbian concept of Internal Working Model and the Piagetian concepts of the development of knowledge through the processes of assimilation and accommodation.