John Bowlby’s interest in child development didn’t just pop out of nowhere. It all started when he volunteered at a school for kids who had a rough time fitting in. Two kids, in particular, grabbed his attention and pretty much set him on the path to creating attachment theory.
First, there was this teenager who was distant and withdrawn. He had no stable mother figure and had just been kicked out of school for stealing. Then, there was an anxious little boy, about 7 or 8, who stuck to Bowlby like glue—earning himself the nickname “Bowlby’s shadow.”
Working with these kids made Bowlby strongly believe that a child’s family life played a huge role in their emotional and behavioural health. He thought that if psychoanalysts really wanted to help children, they needed to look at the whole picture—their home, their family, and their overall environment—not just the kid’s behaviour.
This led to the idea that helping kids meant helping their parents, too. After all, the bond between a child and their caregiver is a big deal.
Meanwhile, Mary Ainsworth was also diving into child psychology around the same time. She was studying security theory, which said that kids need to feel securely attached to their parents before they’re ready to explore the big, scary world on their own.
In 1950, Bowlby and Ainsworth crossed paths when Ainsworth joined Bowlby’s research team in London. Her job was to analyse records of children’s behaviour, which sparked her interest in studying kids in real-life settings.
Together, through a bunch of studies, papers, and a bit of trial and error, Bowlby and Ainsworth built a strong case for attachment theory. Their work offered a much clearer and more detailed explanation of how attachment works than anything else out there at the time, including ideas that were based on or opposed to Freud’s theories.
In short, Bowlby and Ainsworth were the dream team that gave us a deep understanding of why those early bonds between kids and their caregivers are so crucial.
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