ABSTRACT
John Bowlby, consultant in mental health to W.RO., as a contribution to the United Nations programme for the welfare of homeless children. 2 Dr. Bowlby, in his work at the Tavistock Clinic, has already shown that he appreciates the need for presenting psychological concepts in a fonn which appeals to the scientific worker trained to make the s tatistical approach, and it can be said at once that he has been successful in writing a remarkably interesting and valuable report. Compared with the amount of individual psychotherapy that is being done all over the world the investigations giving clear-cut results are few and far between: perhaps there are aspects of psychology which cannot yield results for the statistician. The success of this monograph is due in part to the choice of subject - the effect of the separation from their homes, and specifically from their own mothers, on the emotional development of infants and children, who, as Dr. Bowlby writes, 'are not slates from which the past can be rubbed by a duster or a sponge, but human beings who carry their previous experiences with them and whose behaviour in the present is profoundly affected by what has gone before.' Quoting convincing figures, he is able to show how separation can augment the tendency to the development of a psychopathic personality. Bowlby found that almost all workers in this field had arrived at the same conclusion: 'What' is believed to be essential for mental health is that the infant and the young child should experience a warm, intimate, and continuous relationship with the mother (or pennanent mother-substitute) in which both find satisfaction and enjoyment.' This is not new: it is what mothers and fathers feel, and it is what those who work with children have found. But what is new in this report is the attempt to translate the idea into figures.
