|
Edward John Mostyn Bowlby (; 26 February 1907 – 2 September 1990) was a British psychologist, psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst, notable for his interest in child development and for his pioneering work in attachment theory. A ''Review of General Psychology'' survey, published in 2002, ranked Bowlby as the 49th most cited psychologist of the 20th century. == Family background == Bowlby was born in London with upper-middle-income family. He was the fourth of six children and was brought up by a nanny in the British fashion of his class at that time. The Bowlby family hired one nanny who was in charge of raising the children in a separate nursery in the house.〔Van Dijken, S. (1998). John Bowlby: His Early Life: A Biographical Journey into the Roots of Attachment Theory. London: Free Association Books〕 Nanny friend took care of the infants and generally had two other nursemaids to help her raise the children.〔 As a result, Bowlby was raised primarily by nursemaid Minnie who acted as a mother figure to him and his siblings.〔 His father, Sir Anthony Alfred Bowlby, was surgeon to the King's Household, with a tragic history: at age five, Sir Anthony's father, Thomas William Bowlby, was killed while serving as a war correspondent in the Second Opium War.〔Various contributors; Attachment; London; Karnac books; 2007〕 Bowlby’s parents met at a party in 1897 through a mutual friend.〔 About one year after meeting, Mary (age 31) and Anthony (age 43) decided to get married in 1898.〔 The start of their marriage was said to be difficult due to conflict with Anthony’s sister and physical separation between Mary and Anthony.〔 In order to resolve this prolonged separation, Mary decided to visit her husband for six months while leaving her first born daughter Winnie in the care of her nanny.〔 This separation between Mary and her children was a theme found in all six of her children’s lives as they were primarily raised by the nanny and nursemaids.〔 Normally, Bowlby saw his mother only one hour a day after teatime, though during the summer she was more available. Like many other mothers of her social class, she considered that parental attention and affection would lead to dangerous spoiling of the children. Bowlby was lucky in that the nanny in his family was present throughout his childhood. When Bowlby was almost four years old, his beloved nursemaid Minnie who was actually his primary caretaker in his early years, left the family. Later, he was to describe this as tragic as the loss of a mother. Bowlby was extremely affected by the loss of his nursemaid Minnie as she acted as his mother substitute in a warm and nurturing way like a mother should.〔 When nursemaid Minnie left the family, Bowlby and his siblings were under the primary care of nanny friend who was less than nurturing with Bowlby and his siblings due to her cold and sarcastic nature.〔 This early loss of Bowlby's "mother-figure" fuels his interest later in life around what is now known as attachment theory. During the First World War, Bowlby’s father left to go serve the King in the war.〔 His father came home once or twice a year and had little contact with him and his siblings.〔 Bowlby’s mother received several letters while Anthony was serving in the war, however she did not share any of the letters with her children and because of that, Bowlby had no contact with his father.〔 This was also another impactful event in Bowlby’s childhood that could have potentially influenced his key research focus on separation. At the age of ten, he was sent off to boarding school, as was common for boys of his social status. Bowlby’s parents decided to send both him and his older brother Tony off to the preparatory boarding school in order to protect them from the bombing attacks due to the ongoing war.〔 In his 1973 work ''Separation: Anxiety and Anger'', he revealed that he regarded it as a terrible time for him. He later said, "I wouldn't send a dog away to boarding school at age seven". However, earlier Bowlby had considered boarding schools appropriate for children aged eight and older. In 1951 he wrote, If the child is maladjusted, it may be useful for him to be away for part of the year from the tensions which produced his difficulties, and if the home is bad in other ways the same is true. The boarding school has the advantage of preserving the child's all-important home ties, even if in slightly attenuated form, and, since it forms part of the ordinary social pattern of most Western communities today (), the child who goes to boarding-school will not feel different from other children. Moreover, by relieving the parents of the children for part of the year, it will be possible for some of them to develop more favorable attitudes toward their children during the remainder.〔Bowlby, J. (1951). Maternal Care and Mental Health.New York: Schocken.P.89.〕 Furthermore, Bowlby experienced the tragic loss of his beloved godfather during his childhood, which was another theme of separation and loss that could have contributed to his focus on separation research later on in his career.〔 He married Ursula Longstaff, the daughter of a surgeon, on 16 April 1938, and they had four children, including Sir Richard Bowlby, who succeeded his uncle as third Baronet.〔''Burke's Peerage'' (2003) volume 1, page 460. (thepeerage.com )〕 Bowlby died at his summer home on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. Among his living relatives is the contemporary British journalist Chris Bowlby. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「John Bowlby」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|