Separation Anxiety and Anger

by Bowlby, John

• ISBN13: 9780465097166
• ISBN10: 0465097162
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1976-12-21
• Publisher: Basic Books

Summary

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.

Author Biography

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
Prototypes of Human Sorrow	3	(22)
Responses of young children to separation from mother	3	(3)
Conditions leading to intense responses	6	(10)
Conditions mitigating the intensity of responses	16	(6)
Presence or absence of mother figure: a key variable	22	(3)
The Place of Separation and Loss in Psychopathology	25	(8)
Problem and perspective	25	(5)
Separation anxiety and other forms of anxiety	30	(1)
A challenge for theory	30	(3)
Behaviour with and without Mother: Humans	33	(24)
Naturalistic observations	33	(6)
Experimental Studies	39	(13)
Ontogeny of responses to separation	52	(5)
Behaviour with and without Mother: Non-human Primates	57	(20)
Naturalistic observations	57	(3)
Early experimental studies	60	(9)
Further studies by Hinde and Spencer-Booth	69	(8)
PART II AN ETHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO HUMAN FEAR
Basic Postulates in Theories of Anxiety and Fear	77	(10)
Anxiety allied to fear	77	(2)
Models of motivation and their effects on theory	79	(4)
Puzzling phobia or natural fear	83	(4)
Forms of Behaviour Indicative of Fear	87	(9)
An empirical approach	87	(2)
Withdrawal behaviour and attachment behaviour	89	(3)
Feeling afraid and its variants: feeling alarmed and feeling anxious	92	(4)
Situations that Arouse Fear in Humans	96	(28)
A difficult field of study	96	(3)
Fear-arousing situations: the first year	99	(6)
Fear-arousing situations: the second and later years	105	(13)
Compound situations	118	(1)
Fear behaviour and the development of attachment	119	(5)
Situations that Arouse Fear in Animals	124	(14)
Natural clues to potential danger	124	(3)
Fear behaviour of non-human primates	127	(7)
Compound situations	134	(2)
Fear, attack, and exploration	136	(2)
Natural Clues to Danger and Safety	138	(13)
Better safe than sorry	138	(4)
Potential danger of being alone	142	(4)
Potential safety of familiar companions and environment	146	(2)
Maintaining a stable relationship with the familiar environment: a form of homeostasis	148	(3)
Natural Clues, Cultural Clues, and the Assessment of Danger	151	(18)
Clues of three kinds	151	(2)
Real danger: difficulties of assessment	153	(3)
`Imaginary' dangers	156	(2)
Cultural clues learnt from others	158	(3)
Continuing role of the natural clues	161	(5)
Behaviour in disaster	166	(3)
Rationalization, Misattribution, and Projection	169	(9)
Difficulties in identifying situations that arouse fear	169	(3)
Misattribution and the role of projection	172	(2)
The case of Schreber: a re-examination	174	(4)
Fear of Separation	178	(9)
Hypotheses regarding its development	178	(4)
Need for two terminologies	182	(5)
PART III INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN SUSCEPTIBILITY TO FEAR: ANXIOUS ATTACHMENT
Some Variables responsible for Individual Differences	187	(14)
Constitutional variables	187	(4)
Experiences and processes that reduce susceptibility to fear	191	(5)
Experiences and processes that increase susceptibility to fear	196	(5)
Susceptibility to Fear and the Availability of Attachment Figures	201	(10)
Forecasting the availability of an attachment figure	201	(2)
Working models of attachment figures and of self	203	(4)
The role of experience in determining working models	207	(2)
A note on use of the terms `mature' and `immature'	209	(2)
Anxious Attachment and Some Conditions that Promote it	211	(26)
`Overdependency' or anxious attachment	211	(4)
Anxious attachment of children reared without a permanent mother figure	215	(5)
Anxious attachment after a period of separation or of daily substitute care	220	(6)
Anxious attachment following threats of abandonment or suicide	226	(11)
`Overdependency' and the Theory of Spoiling	237	(8)
Some contrasting theories	237	(3)
Studies of `overdependency' and its antecedents	240	(5)
Anger, Anxiety, and Attachment	245	(13)
Anger: a response to separation	245	(1)
Anger: functional and dysfunctional	246	(7)
Anger, ambivalence, and anxiety	253	(5)
Anxious Attachment and the `Phobias' of Childhood	258	(34)
Phobia, pseudophobia, and anxiety state	258	(3)
`School phobia' or school refusal	261	(22)
Two classical cases of childhood phobia: a reappraisal	283	(6)
Animal phobias in childhood	289	(3)
Anxious Attachment and `Agoraphobia'	292	(21)
Symptomatology and theories of `Agoraphobia'	292	(7)
Pathogenic patterns of family interaction	299	(10)
`Agoraphobia', bereavement, and depression	309	(1)
A note on response to treatment	310	(3)
Omission, Suppression, and Falsification of Family Context	313	(9)
Secure Attachment and the Growth of Self-reliance	322	(41)
Personality development and family experience	322	(6)
Studies of adolescents and young adults	328	(22)
Studies of young children	350	(9)
Self-reliance and reliance on others	359	(4)
Pathways for the Growth of Personality	363	(46)
The nature of individual variation: alternative models	363	(3)
Developmental pathways and homeorhesis	366	(3)
One person's pathway: some determinants	369	(6)
APPENDICES
I Separation Anxiety: Review of Literature	375	(24)
II Psychoanalysis and Evolution Theory	399	(5)
III Problems of Terminology	404	(5)
Additional Notes	409	(6)
References	415	(21)
Additional References	436	(3)
Index	439