Harry Harlow, famous for his experiments with rhesus monkeys and cloth and wire mothers, was visited by psychiatrist and psychoanalyst John Bowlby and by child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim in 1958... Show moreHarry Harlow, famous for his experiments with rhesus monkeys and cloth and wire mothers, was visited by psychiatrist and psychoanalyst John Bowlby and by child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim in 1958. They made similar observations of Harlow's monkeys, yet their interpretations were strikingly different. Bettelheim saw Harlow's wire mother as a perfect example of the 'refrigerator mother', causing autism in her child, while Bowlby saw Harlow's results as an explanation of how socio-emotional development was dependent on responsiveness of the mother to the child's biological needs. Bettelheim's solution was to remove the mother, while Bowlby specifically wanted to involve her in treatment. Harlow was very critical of Bettelheim, but evaluated Bowlby's work positively. Show less
Horst, F.C.P. van der; Zetterqvist Nelson, K.; Rosmalen, L. van; Veer, R. van der 2019
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... Show moreAttachment 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. Show less
The seventh and last chapter of Vygotsky's Thinking and Speech (1934) is generally considered as his final word in psychology. It is a long chapter with a complex argumentative structure in which... Show moreThe seventh and last chapter of Vygotsky's Thinking and Speech (1934) is generally considered as his final word in psychology. It is a long chapter with a complex argumentative structure in which Vygotsky gives his view on the relationship between thinking and speech. Vygotsky's biographers have stated that the chapter was dictated in the final months of Vygotsky's life when his health was rapidly deteriorating. Although the chapter is famous, its structure has never been analyzed in any detail. In the present article we reveal its rhetorical structure and show how Vygotsky drew on many hitherto unrevealed sources to convince the reader of his viewpoint. Show less
On the basis of both published and unpublished manuscripts written from 1914 to 1917, this article gives an overview of Lev Vygotsky's early ideas. It turns out that Vygotsky was very much involved... Show moreOn the basis of both published and unpublished manuscripts written from 1914 to 1917, this article gives an overview of Lev Vygotsky's early ideas. It turns out that Vygotsky was very much involved in issues of Jewish culture and politics. Rather surprisingly, the young Vygotsky rejected all contemporary ideas to save the Jewish people from discrimination and persecution by creating an autonomous state in Palestine or elsewhere. Instead, until well into 1917, Vygotsky proposed the rather traditional option of strengthening the spiritual roots of the Jews by returning to the religious writings. Socialism was rejected, because it merely envisioned the compulsory redistribution of material goods and 'man lives not by bread alone'. It was only after the October Revolution that Vygotsky switched from arguments in favour of the religious faith in the Kingship of God to the communist belief in a Radiant Future. Show less
The mismatch between John Bowlby and post-war Swedish child psychiatry: Account of a research visitIn the first half of 1950, the British psychiatrist and psychoanalyst John Bowlby visited France,... Show moreThe mismatch between John Bowlby and post-war Swedish child psychiatry: Account of a research visitIn the first half of 1950, the British psychiatrist and psychoanalyst John Bowlby visited France, Sweden, the Netherlands, and the USA to gain information about the state of the art in the care of homeless children. The World Health Organization published Bowlby’s conclusions asMaternal Care and Mental Health (1952). The article aims to present an account and discussion of Bowlby’s weeklong visit to Sweden, based on previously unpublished notebooks and letters. The analysis shows a clear mismatch between Bowlby’s ideas and those of his Swedish hosts working in child psychiatry and social care. At first sight, Bowlby seemed to align with the Swedish psychoanalytically oriented child psychiatrists, while rejecting those Swedish experts who represented a biological approach with ideas about heredity, but it was more complicated than that. Bowlby also appreciated the methodological rigor and statistical methods of the latter current. What he did not appreciate, however, was that both Swedish currents, despite their mutual disagreements, shared a similar view of the importance of the environment for child development that was much broader than his own. For Bowlby’s hosts, environmental factors such as housing, schooling, parental care, number of siblings, social contacts, etc. were all important for the understanding of poor mental health and social maladjustment in childhood. As also becomes clear from the title of his book, Bowlby rejected such a broad approach and focused exclusively on mother-child bonding as determining children’s mental development and health. This mismatch between Bowlby and the Swedish experts explains why Bowlby paid only scarce attention to Swedish views in his WHO report, why this report and his later ideas about the importance of mother-child attachment initially met with little enthusiasm, and why he remained a "queer fish" in Sweden. Show less
Fuentas-Vega, S.; Castro, P.J.; Veer, R. van der 2017
John Bowlby is generally regarded as the founder of attachment theory, with the help of Mary Ainsworth. Through her Uganda and Baltimore studies Ainsworth provided empirical evidence for attachment... Show moreJohn Bowlby is generally regarded as the founder of attachment theory, with the help of Mary Ainsworth. Through her Uganda and Baltimore studies Ainsworth provided empirical evidence for attachment theory, and she contributed the notion of the secure base and exploratory behavior, the Strange Situation Procedure and its classification system, and the notion of maternal sensitivity. On closer scrutiny, many of these contributions appear to be heavily influenced by William Blatz and his security theory. Even though Blatz's influence on Ainsworth has been generally acknowledged, this article, partly based on understudied correspondence from several personal archives, is the first to show which specific parts of attachment theory can be traced back directly to Blatz and his security theory. When Ainsworth started working with Bowlby in the 1950s, around the time he turned to evolutionary theory for an explanation of his findings, she integrated much of Blatzian security theory into Bowlby's theory in the making and used her theoretical and practical experience to enrich attachment theory. Even though Blatz is hardly mentioned nowadays, several of his ideas live on in attachment theory. Show less
Cárcamo, R.A.; Vermeer, H.J.; Veer, R. van der; IJzendoorn, M.H. van 2015
