ABSTRACT
Bowlby had a reputation of being most considerate of other people’s work. This certainly was my experience of supervision with him. From 1986 to 1990 I did substantial locum work at Hill End Adolescent Unit (HEAU). That was an inpatient psychiatric resource for young people aged 11 to 16, located in the outskirts of London, with Peter Bruggen as lead consultant (see Chapter 1). The Unit’s entire therapeutic programme took place in family or groups sessions; the concept of authority was thoroughly used. It was an innovative approach. It appeared to contradict some of the attachment ideas that I was learning at the time, on the surface at least. Bowlby was aware of Bruggen’s different philosophy but encouraged me to get
on with it, as an important part of my professional development. Bowlby actually said to me that it was good for a junior psychiatrist to expand the repertoire of training experiences and integrate them. I rarely needed to discuss my work at the Adolescent Unit with him. I was feeling confident enough to explore a territory that was new but, in a way, also familiar. I had been an adolescent myself not too long ago. Looking back, I can say that I very much enjoyed this post. The team was highly
enthusiastic – with Bruggen as a charismatic and unconventional leader. The work was based on a modified therapeutic community mode – a term coined by Tom Main in his landmark paper “The Hospital as a Therapeutic Institution” (Main, 1946). It was painful at times to witness youngsters breaking down. Overall, however, seeing so many young people recovering, making progress and showing passion for life was a decidedly rewarding experience. In this chapter I shall explore key aspects of the work at the Unit, which provided a complementary perspective to my psychoanalytically oriented Tavistock training and my independent mentorship with Bowlby. Bruggen was a creative and atypical consultant. I took pleasure in working and
swimming with him – a pleasure that was reciprocal. He gave me a signed copy of
his second book, Helping Families: Systems, Residential and Agency Responsibility, with a hand written dedicatory: “To Arturo Ezquerro, with whom I have enjoyed swimming and working” (Bruggen & O’Brian, 1987). I also had to accommodate the fact that he appeared to be in two minds about Bowlby. This is described vividly in Castaway’s Corner (Bruggen, 2006, p. 307):
As a priggish 1950s medical student, frozen and defended (I had seen the Robertson film ‘A Two-year Old Goes to Hospital’ and not felt a wisp of emotion), I was staying with my parents when they invited Burnley’s new chief constable for dinner. Probed by my mother for the answer to rising crime and disorder, our guest mentioned John Bowlby’s (1953a) ‘Child Care and the Growth of Love’ which had recently been published. I tried it and, although I found it difficult to read, I was curious.
