Anna Freud Centenary Lecture

Abstract

The author places maternal deprivation, attachment theory and the debate concerning child care by mothers or others, in the sociopolitical and historical context of the latter half of the twentieth century. It is suggested that post-war political pressures, motivated by economic concerns, led to selective over-simplification of complex theory and research findings. This has led to a polarization of views on solutions to the conflict between traditional child care by mothers at home and their modern wage earning outside it, and to assumptions about day care that may not be warranted.