III. Bowlby’s Theory of Attachment and Loss: A Feminist Reconsideration

Abstract

If growth is to proceed smoothly, the tissues [of the embryo] must be exposed to the influence of the appropriate organizer at certain critical periods. In the same way, if mental development is to proceed smoothly, it would appear to be necessary for the undifferentiated psyche to be exposed during certain critical periods to the influence of the psychic organizer -the mother (John Bowlby, 1951: 53). (emphasis added) Bowlby's use of this image of the developing embryo as a metaphor for the undifferentiated psyche is certainly in synch with the organizing mythos of 20thcentury western culture. Like the embryo floating through the film 2001 Space Odyssey, this image of the psyche, gleaned from Bowlby's study of the plight of homeless children in postwar Europe, envisions subjectivity in a timeless, decontextualized and abstracted theoretical space. In Re-visioning Psychology James Hillman has observed that while the ancients had mythology, we have psychology. Psychology is our mythology (Hillman, 1975). According to the traditions of western psychology, the psyche (subjectivity) is conceived of as whole, unified, self-contained, and as essentially unalterable by the artifices of time and place (Morawski, 1994). Like the undifferentiated embryo, subjectivity is seen as genderless, and without race, class, culture or ancestry. What the psyche needs, according to this mythology of individualism, is a mother who 'orients him in space and time, provides his environment, permits satisfaction of some impulses and restricts others' (Bowlby, 1951: 53). It is the actual relationship with the mother -not the historical and cultural circumstance -which organizes the psyche according to the constricted mythos of western psychology.

A sanctuary of tranquillity in a ruptured world: Evaluating long-term counselling at a women’s community health centre

“…Some feminists have criticised attachment theory for being essentialising, individualising, ahistorical and decontextualising (e.g. Bliwise, 1999; Burman, 2008; Clearly, 1999; Franzblau, 1999). However, social policies and clinical practices are increasingly influenced by attachment approaches, and some feminists accept that they are useful, as long as applications of attachment theory are considered through a critical lens (Buchanan, 2013).…”

Attachment Denied? : The Experience of Separation for Live-In Caregivers' Children

“…The report led to dramatic changes in public policies for those children and has received enormous , approval (Bretherton 1992). However, attachment theory is also criticized from different perspectives for its limitations in terms of gender, race, class as well as cultural and so~ial grounds in the emergence of problematic personalities (Cleary 1999;Franzblau 1991). Though the most notable volume of critiques of Bowlby belong to feminists, others also criticize him for , privatizing social problems and blaming mothers as the origin of adult problems and championing children "at the expense of imposing guilt on mothers" (Tizard 1991, 183).…”

“…, ! < ;:, ... (Cleary 1999;Franzblau 1999). Despite criticism, attachment theory is still 'regarded as important withi~ psychological studies.…”

Men’s Choices and Masculine Duties

“…The tone of family experts has changed compared to the times of implementing maternalist discourses during the past hundred years or so, when women were taught how to run the household, how to care for and raise children, and how to concentrate especially on children's early years of infancy to give them the best opportunities to develop into wholesome personalities. It has been common to "blame" the idle, uninterested and not-sensitive-enough-often working-class-women (Ehrenreich and English 1979;Riley 1983;Oakley 1984;Walkerdine and Lucey 1989, 47-63;Burman 1994;Birns 1999;Bliwise 1999;Cleary 1999;for Finland, see Wrede 1991;Ollila 1993;Nätkin 1997). Direct and "negative" means of control have gradually been replaced by a more positive ethos, and internalized knowledge and self-direction have become the final aim.…”