Early maternal deprivation and later psychiatric illness.

Abstract

object of this paper is to investigate the relationship between early T"" maternal deprivation and the later development of personality disorder and patterns of psychiatric illness. This work was inspired by the work of Bowlby (2), whose book summarizes his own studies and those of others on this theme. He emphasized the need to define accurately a maternal separation experience. Many studies have noted relationships between a "broken home" and later mental illness or delinquency, but this concept was too loose a one for scientific purposes.Bowlby's studies and similar investigations have largely been concerned with children and adolescents, with one or two covering early adult life. We have been interested in the effect throughout life of early maternal deprivation. We have also investigated the fallacies which critics of Bowlby have pointed out, that is, the possibility that unstable parents with a hereditary burden of psychopathic factors have themselves produced the separation experiences of Bowlby's patients by means of divorce, separation, illegitimacy, admission to mental hospital, etc. Bowlby's conclusions were briefly that early maternal deprivation, if severe, would provoke later delinquency or sociopathic personality, and if less severe, a neurosis.

Parental loss before the age of 16 years: A comparative study of patients with personality disorder and patients with schizophrenia in a high secure hospital's population

“…Earlier research has shown that separation from one or both parents is frequently found in the backgrounds of those with personality disorder, especially antisocial personality disorder (APD; Parker, 1997). Maternal deprivation, for a period of six months or more in the first six years of childhood, is significantly linked to the later development of APD (Earle & Earle, 1961). Greer (1964) defined parental loss as 'complete loss or continuous absence, from whatever cause, of one or both parents for at least twelve months before the age of fifteen'.…”

Frequency of RAD diagnosis and attachment disorder in community mental health agency clients.

“…Numerous researchers have reported that multiple caregivers increase the risk of attachment problems (Barber et aI., 2001;Bowlby, 1988;Brown & Epps, 1966;Craft et aI., 1964;Earle & Earle, 1961;Fanshel & Shin, 1978;Greer, 1964;Hughes, 1997;Naess, 1962). This study appeared to confirm that as well.…”

“…In a sample of 157 adolescent offenders, psychopathic offenders were separated at an earlier age both from their biological mothers and their biological fathers as compared to nonpsychopathic offenders (Forth & Mallioux, 2000). Other findings regarding absence of caregivers for psychopaths were found by Earle and Earle (1961), Naess (1962) Greer (1964), and Brown and Epps (1966). (Carlson, 1998;Main & Hesse, 1990;Radke-Yarrow, Cummings Kucznski, & Chapman, 1985;Zeanah, Danis, Hirsheberg, Benoit, Miller, & Heller, 1999).…”

Childhood Parent-loss in a Psychiatrically Normal Population

“…Occasionally (Earle and Earle, 1961;Imboden, Canter, and Cluff, 1963), a group of parentally deprived individuals is compared with non-deprived controls to discover if the deprived group shows an increased tendency to psychiatric disorder. This method is less popular because it is more difficult to gather a group of the parentally deprived than a group of psychiatric patients.…”