TY - JOUR
T1 - 'At all costs let us avoid any risk of allowing our hearts to be broken again'
T2 - A review of John Bowlby's forty-four juvenile thieves
AU - Dixon, Angela
PY - 2003/4
Y1 - 2003/4
N2 - In this classic study, Bowlby reports on 88 children seen in the London Child Guidance Clinic during the 1930s. Half of them were referred for stealing, and half for other problems. Bowlby distinguishes several factors which may lead to maladjustment, but was particularly concerned with the hypothesis that prolonged separation of the child from the mother in the early years was a causative factor in delinquent character formation. Such separation, thought Bowlby, was especially instrumental in the development of an 'Affectionless Character' often seen in the persistent offender. Development of this indifferent, or dismissive pattern of attachment protected these children from forming close, personal relationships, hence eliminating 'any risk of allowing our hearts to be broken again.' His first empirical study, Bowlby's comprehensive and detailed analysis of the 44 thieves ushered in his revolutionary human attachment theory and foretells the enormous contribution of his subsequent career.
AB - In this classic study, Bowlby reports on 88 children seen in the London Child Guidance Clinic during the 1930s. Half of them were referred for stealing, and half for other problems. Bowlby distinguishes several factors which may lead to maladjustment, but was particularly concerned with the hypothesis that prolonged separation of the child from the mother in the early years was a causative factor in delinquent character formation. Such separation, thought Bowlby, was especially instrumental in the development of an 'Affectionless Character' often seen in the persistent offender. Development of this indifferent, or dismissive pattern of attachment protected these children from forming close, personal relationships, hence eliminating 'any risk of allowing our hearts to be broken again.' His first empirical study, Bowlby's comprehensive and detailed analysis of the 44 thieves ushered in his revolutionary human attachment theory and foretells the enormous contribution of his subsequent career.
KW - Attachment
KW - Juvenile delinquency
KW - Maternal deprivation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0038407353&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1359104503008002011
DO - 10.1177/1359104503008002011
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:0038407353
VL - 8
SP - 278
EP - 289
JO - Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry
JF - Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry
SN - 1359-1045
IS - 2
ER -