Vitamins for the soul: John Bowlby’s thesis of maternal deprivation, biomedical metaphors and the deficiency model of disease

Abstract

In 1951 John Bowlby, British psychoanalyst and child psychiatrist, published his now famous report, Maternal Care and Mental Health, commissioned by the World Health Organization. In this report, Bowlby coined the term 'maternal deprivation', which quickly permeated into Western psychiatry and psychology. The implications of Bowlby's writings, while widely criticized and contested, generated a considerable amount of research and brought about significant changes in perceptions of separation between children and their mothers. This article examines the origins of the 'maternal deprivation' hypothesis, focusing on how the deficiency theory of disease influenced psychiatric discourse, and framed Bowlby's theory of maternal care. We argue that developments in paediatric medicine, and particularly in the field of nutritional deficiencies, provided Bowlby a prototype for conceptualizing his early views on the psychological needs of children and the development of psychopathology.

Fertile bodies, immature brains?: A genealogical critique of neuroscientific claims regarding the adolescent brain and of the global fight against adolescent motherhood

“…The dominant view within this literature was that having a child out-of-wedlock was a manifestation of mental disorder. One of the most outspoken proponents of this view was John Bowlby, a prominent psychoanalyst whose work, particularly on 'maternal deprivation', influenced policy in the post-war era (Duniec and Raz, 2011;Lewis and Welshman, 2003;Rose, 1999). Bowlby maintained that the man and woman who produced an illegitimate child had an 'unstable', 'immature' and 'neurotic character' (Bowlby, 1966, 93e95).…”

Maternal regulation of the infant's hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal axis stress response: Seymour ‘Gig’ Levine's legacy to neuroendocrinology

“…This situation is well exemplified by foster homes, to which children are sent because of parental neglect and/or sexual and psychological abuse . The seminal work by John Bowlby on the impact of family relationships on children's mental health and that of Myron Hofer on the maternal regulation of the neonate's physiology paved the grounds for the scientific investigation of the importance of mother‐infant bonding for adequate physiological and psychological development.…”

Integrated Attachment Theory

“…He was impressed by Spitz's (1946) writings on the effects of institutionalization on children, the work of Harlow (1961) on maternal caregiving and isolation from the mother in rhesus monkeys, the work of Lorenz (1935) on imprinting with geese, and of Hinde (1987) on ethology and social relationship, all of which express the ethological foundations of close relationships as independent primary motivational processes in survival terms (Bowlby, 1969(Bowlby, , 1973(Bowlby, , 1980Duniec and Raz, 2011). Bowlby's personal background may also have contributed to his approach.…”