A tale of four countries: How Bowlby used his trip through Europe to write the WHO report and spread his ideas.

Frank C. P. van der Horst,Lenny van Rosmalen,Karin Zetterqvist Nelson,René van der Veer

doi:10.1002/jhbs.22016

Abstract

Attachment theory, developed by child psychiatrist John Bowlby, is considered a major theory in developmental psychology. Attachment theory can be seen as resulting from Bowlby's personal experiences, his psychoanalytic education, his subsequent study of ethology, and societal developments during the 1930s and 1940s. One of those developments was the outbreak of World War II and its effects on children's psychological wellbeing. In 1950, Bowlby was appointed WHO consultant to study the needs of children who were orphaned or separated from their families for other reasons and needed care in foster homes or institutions. The resulting report is generally considered a landmark publication in psychology, although it subsequently met with methodological criticism. In this paper, by reconstructing Bowlby's visit to several European countries, on the basis of notebooks and letters, the authors shed light on the background of this report and the way Bowlby used or neglected the findings he gathered.

Highlights

VAN DER HORST ET AL.After World War II there was widespread concern over the psychological consequences of the war on children's emotional development (Shields & Bryan, 2002; Zahra, 2015)
On the basis of a detailed reconstruction of Bowlby's encounters with clinicians and researchers in the field of child guidance and child psychiatry in several European countries, we showed how Bowlby gathered evidence for his monograph Maternal Care and Mental Health (Bowlby, 1952)
It became evident that Bowlby was not a passive recipient of ideas he heard from others, but selectively used the relevant sources and followed his own special interest in mother–child separation

Summary

Introduction

VAN DER HORST ET AL.After World War II there was widespread concern over the psychological consequences of the war on children's emotional development (Shields & Bryan, 2002; Zahra, 2015). During the war children in German‐occupied territory were deported, orphaned, or went into hiding—with or without their parents. In Britain, children were evacuated without their parents from war‐stricken areas to protect them against air raids (Downs, 2006; Wick, 1988; Wick, 1990; Zetterqvist Nelson, 2016), see (Bowlby, Miller, & Winnicott, 1939). For those who could stay with their parents, there were still other concerns: hunger, cold, and fear were omnipresent. The number of orphans in Europe at the end of the war was estimated at 13 million (Macardle, 1949)

Objectives

Conclusion