James Robertson (psychoanalyst)

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James Robertson (born 1911 in Glasgow ; † 1988 ) was a Scottish psychoanalyst and social worker . He worked at the Tavistock Clinic in London from 1948 to 1976 . Alongside John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth , he was a major founder and advocate of attachment theory .

Life

James Robertson was born in Glasgow and grew up in a working class family. He converted to Quakerism in his late teenage years and became a conscientious objector in World War II. In 1941 he met his future wife Joyce and Anna Freud . James Robertson initially worked as a caretaker in a children's home run by Anna Freud and was trained by her as a psychoanalyst.

After the war and training as a social worker in psychiatry , he met John Bowlby in 1948 at the Tavistock Clinic. Another fruitful collaboration at this clinic came with the psychologist Mary Ainsworth, who applied for a position at the Tavistock Clinic in 1950. Her responsibilities included research into the effects of early mother-child separation on personality development and was under the direction of John Bowlby. As she continued working with James Robertson at the clinic, Mary Ainsworth was so impressed with his approaches to field observation that she decided to adopt his methods.

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40s

During his work in Anna Freud's children's home, Robertson noticed that the children in this home reacted very differently to separations and documented these observations. Bowlby encouraged him to continue his field observations on the behavior of young children after separation from their parents in clinics such as the children's ward at Central Middlesex Hospital in London. During this period, visits by relatives to young children in London hospitals were severely restricted.

The questioning of Munro-Davies in 1949 about visiting hours at London hospitals gave the following picture:

  • Boys Hospital, Sundays 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.;
  • St. Bartholomä, Wednesdays 2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.;
  • Westminster Hospital, Wednesdays 2pm - 3pm, Sundays 2pm - 3pm;
  • St Thomas Hospital, No visits allowed for the first month. The parents were able to watch their children sleep from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
  • West London Hospital, no visit;
  • Charing Cross Hospital, Sundays 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.;
  • London Hospital, children under 3 years of age were not allowed to receive visits. The parents could see the children through partitions. Children over 3 years of age could have visitors twice a week.

This led to great stress for the young patients. Robertson was shocked by the misfortune he saw among the youngest children in the children's wards, especially those under 3 years old. The competent and efficient doctors and nurses ensured good medical care. Yet they did not seem to be affected by the suffering of the children around them. They saw that when the children separated from their parents, they first protested, then became calmer and more agreeable. However, Robertson saw this as a warning sign.

50s

Based on long-term observations on children's wards, he describes in a theory the phases of separation reactions of children under three years of age during a stay in the clinic without the mother: protest, desperation and rejection / unacceptance.

Robertson became known for his film recordings of small children in hospitals. With a grant of £ 150 he bought a film camera and black and white film. In 1952 he filmed for the first time the stay of 2-year-old Laura in the hospital. She was in the clinic for an operation for eight days. The insights from the moving film “A two-year-old goes to hospital” and his field observations played an important role in the development of attachment theory. With these films he tried to show the true circumstances and the extent of the plight of children in the clinics.

Robertson's research has long been hostile to the medical profession. Even his colleagues at the Tavistock Clinic, members of the British Psycho-Analytical Society and the analysts in the FRG have long been very skeptical and hostile to his and Bowlby's considerations of attachment theory.

A so far little explored collaboration came about with the social medicine specialist Eva Schmidt-Kolmer in the GDR . In 1957 she helped him to publish his essay "On the loss of maternal care in early childhood" in the "Zeitschrift für Ärztliche Furtherbildung". The risks and dangers of an early mother-child separation expressed by J. Bowlby and J. Robertson were substantiated by research results by paediatricians and developmental psychologists in the GDR. Indirectly, these research results on the development of infants and toddlers in day nurseries and permanent homes strengthened previous considerations of the developing attachment theory. The cooperation led to discussions among the pediatricians in the GDR, who openly urged and tried out reforms in the homes. A number of pediatricians saw a further expansion of external care not without risks for the development of infants and young children.

60s and 70s

With the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, the collaboration between Schmidt-Kolmer and Robertson seems to have broken off. His work and the attachment theory were no longer published in the GDR.

In 1971 Robertson and his wife Joyce first coined the terms parent-child bond and “bonding” in an essay. Both make five further films on the attachment behavior of children, which are published in several languages.

In the 1970s, his companion Mary Ainsworth succeeded in developing a scientifically recognized setting to confirm the attachment theory with the help of the " Stranger Situation Test ". She developed an experimental situation in which different qualities of attachment behavior in human children could be demonstrated. M. Ainsworth was made aware of the different behavior patterns after reunification with parents by J. Robertson. With an article by James and Joyce Robertson published in 1975 on the reactions of young children to short-term separation from their mother in the light of new observations, the interest of psychoanalysis in attachment theory awakened again in West Germany as well. In 1976 James Robertson ended his long career at the Tavistock Clinic. His work can be seen in the close, trusting and inspiring collaboration with his wife Joyce Robertson († 2013).

Effects of his work up to the present

Today we understand better, through the film work of James Robertson and his wife, the dangers for the development of children through a hospital stay without parents or in-patient care. Clinics today make it much easier and easier for parents to visit and stay with their children. The inclusion of parents of a seriously ill child in a clinic in the sense of rooming-in is one of the modern preventive measures against hospitalism today.

The use and dissemination of a camera as a film technology research tool in psychology is due to Robertson. René Spitz, for example, used this medium in his further research on babies in the 1950s. In the "Stranger Situation Test" developed by Mary Ainsworth in the 1970s to research childlike patterns of attachment, the camera has become a crucial tool.

The fact that attachment theory is one of the most established theories in psychology today is largely thanks to the work of the Robertson couple. This theoretical approach has developed rapidly since the 1990s. The attachment theory has also found recognition in German-speaking countries. The married couple Hanus and Mechthild Papoušek at the University of Munich and Karin and Klaus Grossmann at the University of Regensburg should be mentioned here, who have played an important role in the dissemination and further development of attachment theory. Many researchers study attachment and interaction, including a. with video recordings, of parents and children and draw conclusions about normal and pathological developments. The theoretical foundations of attachment are also increasingly included in the psychotherapy of adults and children.

Robertson's work casts a questioning spotlight on current developments in Germany, among others, on the early third-party care of infants and toddlers in day nurseries or child minders, as well as on the increasing number of lifestyle diseases such as depression , fear of loss or sleep disorders .

John Bowlby said of his colleague's accomplishments:

“(He) was a remarkable person who achieved great things. His sensitive and brilliant observations went down in history and the courage he spread - often in the face of ignorant and biased criticism - to which he was at the mercy. He will always be remembered as the man who revolutionized children's clinics, even though he achieved much more. Personally, I am deeply grateful for everything he has done. "

Works (selection)

  • Film: A Two-year-old Goes to Hospital. 16 mm, 40-minute and 30-minute versions, in English and French. Concord Video and Film Council 1953b
  • Film: Going to Hospital with Mother. 16 mm, 40 minutes, in English and French. Concord Video and Film Council 1958a
  • Young Children in Hospital. Tavistock, 1958.
  • The plight of small children in hospitals. In: Parents Magazine. June 1960.
  • James Robertson: Hospitals and Children: A Parent's Eye-View. Gollancz, 1962.
  • Children in hospital. In: Observer. January 15, 22, and 29, and February 12, 1961.
  • Young Children in Hospital. 2., revised. Edition. Tavistock, 1970.
  • James Robertson: Young Children in Hospital. 2nd Edition. Tavistock Publications, 1971, ISBN 0-422-75060-3 .
  • James and Joyce Robertson: Separation and the Very Young. Free Association Books, 1989, ISBN 1-85343-097-8 .
  • James and Joyce Robertson: A Baby in the Family. Penguin, 1982, ISBN 0-14-046499-9 .
  • Film: Kate, Aged Two Years Five Months, in Foster Care for Twenty-seven Days. 16 mm, 33 minutes, in English, French and Danish. Young Children in Brief Separation Film Series. Concord Video and Film Council 1967
  • Film: Jane, Aged Seventeen Months, in Foster Care for Ten Days. 16 mm, 39 minutes, in English, Danish, French, German and Swedish. Young Children in Brief Separation Film Series. Concord Video and Film Council 1968
  • Film: John, Aged Seventeen Months, For Nine Days in a Residential Nursery. 16 mm, 43 minutes, in English, Danish, French, German and Swedish. Young Children in Brief Separation Film Series. Concord Video and Film Council 1969
  • The problem of professional anxiety. Separation and the Very Young. 1970, pp. 1-4.
  • Film: Thomas, Aged Two Years Four Months, in Foster Care for Ten Days. 16 mm, 38 minutes, in English. Young Children in Brief Separation Film Series. Concord Video and Film Council 1971
  • Film: Lucy, Aged Twenty-one Months, in Foster Care for Nineteen Days. 16 mm, 31 minutes, in English and French. Young Children in Brief Separation Film Series. Concord Video and Film Council 1973a
  • Substitute mothering for the unaccompanied child. In: Nursing Times. November 29, 1973
  • The psychological parent. Adoption and Fostering 87. Separation and the Very Young, 1977, pp. 210-213.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ HG Munro-Davies: Visits to Children in Hospital. In: Spectator. March 18, 1949.
  2. ^ Judith Trowell, Marion Bower: The emotional needs of young children and their families. 1995, p. 25.
  3. James Robertson: Some responses of young children to loss of maternal care. In: Nursing Times. April 18, 1953, pp. 382-386.
  4. Inge Bretherton: The history of the attachment theory. In: G. Spangler, P. Zimmermann (Ed.): The theory of attachment. Basics, research and application. Stuttgart 1995, p. 27ff.
  5. ^ Inge Bretherton: In: Developmental Psychology. 28, 1992, pp. 759-775.
  6. J. Robertson: On Loss of Maternal Care in Early Childhood. In: Journal for Medical Training. No. 21/22, 1957.
  7. Jens Plückhahn: Permanent homes for infants and toddlers in the GDR from the perspective of attachment theory. Thesis. FH Potsdam, Potsdam 2012, p. 60 and p. 101 ff .; Bundesarchiv Berlin-Lichterfelde - Ministry of Health of the GDR BArch DQ 1/13585 u. at the; Journal for medical training in the GDR. No. 21/22, 1957, pp. 895 ff .; No. 7, 1958, pp. 307 ff .; No. 22, 1959, pp. 1443 ff .; No. 21, 1960, pp. 1220 ff. And at the
  8. James Robertson, Joyce Robertson, Young Children's Reactions to Short-Term Separation from Mother in the Light of New Observations. In: Psyche. No. 7, 1975, pp. 626-664.
  9. ^ Mary Lindsay: Joyce Robertson obituary. In: The Guardian. May 19, 2013.
  10. J. and J. Robertson, p. 203.
  11. J. and J. Robertson, p. 209.
  12. ^ B. Leiber, M. Radke, M. Müller: Das Baby-Lexikon. ABC of early childhood. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 2001.
  13. DS Schechter: Violent trauma in the succession of generations. In: KH Brisch, T. Hellbrügge (Ed.): Attachment and trauma . Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2003, pp. 235-256.
  14. J. Bowlby: Happiness and Sorrow. Establishing and dissolving affective ties . Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1980.
  15. GJ Suess, H. Scheurer-Englisch, W.-KP Pfeifer (Ed.): Attachment theory and family dynamics - application of attachment theory in counseling and therapy. Psychosozial Verlag, Giessen 2001.
  16. SA Mitchell: Attachment and Relationship. On the way to a relational psychoanalysis . Psychosozial Verlag, Giessen 2003.