ABSTRACT
The attachment process provides the developing child with a secure base for exploration and the foundation of later relationships. What happens when the attachment process fails? We have met the name Bowlby several times now and you may recall that he was the author of the most influential attachment theory. In his first version he called it ‘the maternal deprivation hypothesis’ because he focused on the purportedly catastrophic effects which occur when a child is deprived of maternal attachment. (Note that maternal does not necessarily equal mother, it refers to ‘mothering’ which can be done by anyone even a wolf as in the case of the legend of Romulus and Remus.)
Michael Rutter (1972, 1981) was basically supportive of Bowlby’s theory but identified various flaws, one of which was that Bowlby had muddled together a variety of different kinds of deprivation. An infant
or child can be deprived of a caregiver’s presence, meaning that the child had formed attachment bonds but these were now disrupted, or the child can suffer from privation. It is the difference between having loved and lost, or simply never having loved or been loved.
