2.5

Very insightful for parents like me. It gave me so much to think about as a mother especially how my own childhood has an impact on my kids’ childhoods as well. There are some really dry sections bordering on clinical textbook styles but I am glad I persevered in reading these despite those parts. The learning is really worth.

Absolutely essential reading for every human being.

I read this from a layman’s perspective, but as a lot of it was directed specifically toward therapists, I felt like a lot of it didn’t really apply to me. But I was able to glean some interesting and pertinent information from it.

An easily digestible introduction to Attachment Theory by its principle originator.

Whilst Bowlby's background was in psychoanalysis, he eschewed the Freudian concepts of developmental stages and of the inner 'fantasy' life being more crucial in psychopathology than the effect of real-life events upon a person's 'developmental pathway'. His emphasis on the importance of the present experience over examination of past memories, and of the therapeutic effect of the quality of the client-therapist relationship, also distinguishes his work from that of traditional psychoanalysis. I found many of his precepts compatible with the client-centred therapy of Carl Rogers, which is the theoretical framework for counselling with which I am most familiar.

Bowlby's work fills in something of the blank in Rogerian therapy regarding child development. Whilst a counsellor working in the classical client-centred approach may not feel the need for this blank to be filed, it's something I've found fascinating and which I intend to read into further.