ABSTRACT
British analyst John Bowlby was a contemporary of Klein, who was also his analyst. His extensive research with animals and children led to an increasing awareness of the significance of mourning as a primary aspect of human psychic development. His ideas on the topic of human psychic development dovetailed with Fairbairn's notions. He found the need for the other to be with us from birth. Bowlby, however, spoke of attachment theory, whereas Fairbairn spoke of longings for the other from birth as a profound need for connection. In viewing the human psyche as primarily motivated by a sense of self that is always in relation to an object, both Fairbairn and Bowlby complemented Klein. But, unlike Klein, they believed that the other we yearn for from the moment of birth is the real parental other rather than, as she proposed, a fantasy object created in the earliest stage of life.
