MATERNAL DEPRIVATION

By: JOHN BOWLBY

OVERVIEW

 John Bowlby was a psychoanalyst (like Freud) and believed that mental health
and behavioral problems could be attributed to early childhood.
 John Bowlby was commissioned by the WHO to write a report on the mental
health of homeless children in Europe after World war II. The report was
published in 1951 and titled Maternal Care and Mental Health
 WHAT IS MATERNAL
DEPRIVATION?
 Inadequate mothering, whether delivered by the
mother or another primary care giver, during the
first six months of life, leading to a failure of
attachment, OR more generally inadequate
mothering during the first five years of life.
TYPES OF MATERNAL DEPRIVATION.
 Mother- Child separation
 Multiple Mothering
 Distortion in Quality of Care
 Institutionalization
THE CRITICAL PERIOD
 Bowlby considered that there was a critical period from about 6 months to 2
½ years when infant should have a continuous, unbroken relationship with
someone.
The Main Points of Bowlby’s
Attachment Theory:
1. A child has an innate (i.e. inborn) need to attach to one main attachment figure
(i.e. monotropy).
2. A child should receive the continuous care of this single most important
attachment figure for approximately the first two years of life.
3. The long term consequences of maternal deprivation might include the
following:
delinquency,
• reduced intelligence,
• increased aggression,
• depression,
• affectionless psychopath
CONTINUATION…

4. Robertson and Bowlby (1952) believe that short-term separation from an

attachment figure leads to distress (i.e., the PDD model).
5.  The child’s attachment relationship with their primary caregiver leads to the
development of an internal working model (Bowlby, 1969).
AIM:
 To investigate the long-term effects of maternal deprivation on people in
order to see whether delinquents have suffered deprivation.  According to the
Maternal Deprivation Hypothesis, breaking the maternal bond with the child
during the early stages of its life is likely to have serious effects on its
intellectual, social and emotional development.
CONCLUSION:
 Bowlby concluded that maternal separation/deprivation in the child’s early
life caused permanent emotional damage.
 He diagnosed this as a condition and called it Affectionless Psychopathy.
According to Bowlby, this condition involves a lack of emotional development,
characterized by a lack of concern for others, lack of guilt and inability to
form meaningful and lasting relationships.