Separation: Anxiety And Anger

by John Bowlby

Overview

The experience of separation and the ensuing susceptibility to anxiety, anger, and fear constitute the flip side of the attachment phenomenon. In an authoritative new foreword to Bowlby's classic study, Stephen Mitchell (who gives resonant voice to the relational perspective in psychoanalysis) bridges the distance between attachment theory and the psychoanalytic tradition.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780465097166
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	12/21/1976
Series:	Basic Books Classics Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	480
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)
Lexile:	1430L (what's this?)

About the Author

John Bowlby is honorary staff member of the Tavistock Clinic in London.

Table of Contents

	Foreword	vii
	Preface	xi
	Acknowledgements	xvii
Part I	Security, Anxiety, and Distress
1	Prototypes of Human Sorrow	3
	Responses of young children to separation from mother	3
	Conditions leading to intense responses	6
	Conditions mitigating the intensity of responses	16
	Presence or absence of mother figure: a key variable	22
2	The Place of Separation and Loss in Psychopathology	25
	Problem and perspective	25
	Separation anxiety and other forms of anxiety	30
	A challenge for theory	30
3	Behaviour with and without Mother: Humans	33
	Naturalistic observations	33
	Experimental Studies	39
	Ontogeny of responses to separation	52
4	Behaviour with and without Mother: Non-human Primates	57
	Naturalistic observations	57
	Early experimental studies	60
	Further studies by Hinde and Spencer-Booth	69
Part II	An Ethological Approach to Human Fear
5	Basic Postulates in Theories of Anxiety and Fear	77
	Anxiety allied to fear	77
	Models of motivation and their effects on theory	79
	Puzzling phobia or natural fear	83
6	Forms of Behaviour Indicative of Fear	87
	An empirical approach	87
	Withdrawal behaviour and attachment behaviour	89
	Feeling afraid and its variants: feeling alarmed and feeling anxious	92
7	Situations that Arouse Fear in Humans	96
	A difficult field of study	96
	Fear-arousing situations: the first year	99
	Fear-arousing situations: the second and later years	105
	Compound situations	118
	Fear behaviour and the development of attachment	119
8	Situations that Arouse Fear in Animals	124
	Natural clues to potential danger	124
	Fear behaviour of non-human primates	127
	Compound situations	134
	Fear, attack, and exploration	136
9	Natural Clues to Danger and Safety	138
	Better safe than sorry	138
	Potential danger of being alone	142
	Potential safety of familiar companions and environment	146
	Maintaining a stable relationship with the familiar environment: a form of homeostasis	148
10	Natural Clues, Cultural Clues, and the Assessment of Danger	151
	Clues of three kinds	151
	Real danger: difficulties of assessment	153
	'Imaginary' dangers	156
	Cultural clues learnt from others	158
	Continuing role of the natural clues	161
	Behaviour in disaster	166
11	Rationalization, Misattribution, and Projection	169
	Difficulties in identifying situations that arouse fear	169
	Misattribution and the role of projection	172
	The case of Schreber: a re-examination	174
12	Fear of Separation	178
	Hypotheses regarding its development	178
	Need for two terminologies	182
Part III	Individual Differences in Susceptibility to Fear: Anxious Attachment
13	Some Variables responsible for Individual Differences	187
	Constitutional variables	187
	Experiences and processes that reduce susceptibility to fear	191
	Experiences and processes that increase susceptibility to fear	196
14	Susceptibility to Fear and the Availability of Attachment Figures	201
	Forecasting the availability of an attachment figure	201
	Working models of attachment figures and of self	203
	The role of experience in determining working models	207
	A note on use of the terms 'mature' and 'immature'	209
15	Anxious Attachment and Some Conditions that Promote it	211
	'Overdependency' or anxious attachment	211
	Anxious attachment of children reared without a permanent mother figure	215
	Anxious attachment after a period of separation or of daily substitute care	220
	Anxious attachment following threats of abandonment or suicide	226
16	'Overdependency' and the Theory of Spoiling	237
	Some contrasting theories	237
	Studies of 'overdependency' and its antecedents	240
17	Anger, Anxiety, and Attachment	245
	Anger: a response to separation	245
	Anger: functional and dysfunctional	246
	Anger, ambivalence, and anxiety	253
18	Anxious Attachment and the 'Phobias' of Childhood	258
	Phobia, pseudophobia, and anxiety state	258
	'School phobia' or school refusal	261
	Two classical cases of childhood phobia: a reappraisal	283
	Animal phobias in childhood	289
19	Anxious Attachment and 'Agoraphobia'	292
	Symptomatology and theories of 'agoraphobia'	292
	Pathogenic patterns of family interaction	299
	'Agoraphobia', bereavement, and depression	309
	A note on response to treatment	310
20	Omission, Suppression, and Falsification of Family Context	313
21	Secure Attachment and the Growth of Self-reliance	322
	Personality development and family experience	322
	Studies of adolescents and young adults	328
	Studies of young children	350
	Self-reliance and reliance on others	359
22	Pathways for the Growth of Personality	363
	The nature of individual variation: alternative models	363
	Developmental pathways and homeorhesis	366
	One person's pathway: some determinants	369
	Appendices
I	Separation Anxiety: Review of Literature	375
II	Psychoanalysis and Evolution Theory	399
III	Problems of Terminology	404
	Additional Notes	409
	References	415
	Additional References	436
	Index	439

What People are Saying About This

Anthony Storr

"It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of Bowlby's work...His ideas have modified and will continue to influence the rearing of children and the treatment of those who are disturbed."