Maternal Deprivation - Maternal Care and Mental Health

Maternal Care and Mental Health

Bowlby's work on delinquent and affectionless children and the effects of hospital and institutional care lead to his being commissioned to write the World Health Organisation's report on the mental health of homeless children in post-war Europe whilst he was head of the Department for Children and Parents at the Tavistock Clinic in London after World War II. Bowlby travelled on the Continent and in America, communicating with social workers, paediatricians and child psychiatrists including those who had already published literature on the issue. These authors were mainly unaware of each other's work, and Bowlby was able to draw together the findings and highlight the similarities described, despite the variety of methods used, ranging from direct observation to retrospective analysis to comparison groups. In addition, there was work from England undertaken by Dorothy Burlingham and Anna Freud on children separated from their families due to wartime disruption, and Bowlby's own work. The result was the monograph Maternal Care and Mental Health published in 1951, which sets out the maternal deprivation hypothesis. The WHO report was followed by the publication of an abridged version for public consumption called Child Care and the Growth of Love. This book sold over half a million copies worldwide. Bowlby tackled not only institutional and hospital care, but also policies of removing children from "unwed mothers" and untidy and physically neglected homes, and lack of support for families in difficulties. In a range of areas Bowlby cited the lack of adequate research and suggested the direction this could take.