A tale of four countries: How Bowlby used his trip through Europe to write the WHO report and spread his ideas

Abstract

Attachment theory, developed by child psychiatrist John Bowlby, is considered a major theory in developmental psychology. Attachment theory can be seen as resulting from Bowlby's personal experiences, his psychoanalytic education, his subsequent study of ethology, and societal developments during the 1930s and 1940s. One of those developments was the outbreak of World War II and its effects on children's psychological wellbeing. In 1950, Bowlby was appointed WHO consultant to study the needs of children who were orphaned or separated from their families for other reasons and needed care in foster homes or institutions. The resulting report is generally considered a landmark publication in psychology, although it subsequently met with methodological criticism. In this paper, by reconstructing Bowlby's visit to several European countries, on the basis of notebooks and letters, the authors shed light on the background of this report and the way Bowlby used or neglected the findings he gathered.

Child development, film evidence, and epidemiological sciences: Elwyn James Anthony and the 1957 Zurich International Congress of Psychiatry

“…WHO and UNICEF, 1951 ). John Bowlby’s famed 1951 report on the negative effects of ‘maternal deprivation’ was an example of immediate demand because the post-war era placed a focus on the problem of displaced and orphaned children ( Thomson, 2006 ; Van der Horst et al, 2020 ; Vicedo, 2013 ). In fact, Bowlby had already successfully suspended major theoretical debates on child psychosis and ego development at the British Psychoanalytic Society during the war in order to prioritise child welfare projects ( King and Steiner, 1992 : 476–500, 867–9).…”

The Importance of Relational Skills in the Management of the team in the Healthcare Sector, With Particular Reference to the Nurse Leader Role: An opinion

“…If the nature of leadership is properly relational, its core quality is in mobilizing all those involved in this relationship , and the positive and creative alliance with the others constitutes its authentic value, from which it is deduced that relational skills are equally fundamental so that there is a greater chance of ensuring the good functioning of the group. Often the degeneration of interpersonal dynamics also lies in a lack of knowledge both of the fundamentals of human communication, and of the way of interpreting and perceiving events, from which blurred and obtuse readings of reality emerge [4][5][6][7][8]. On the contrary, being aware of ourselves and the ways of communicating and interacting, as well as our being in a relationship, would help us to improve or limit the repetition of the same mistakes both in us and in the relationship with the members of the working group.…”

“…Finally, the theory of communication, in that, the latter is one way "a conditio sine qua non" of human life and social order, with particular attention to the axioms of the Palo Alto group, provides a reading of the communication dynamics behind human interaction, the pivotal process on which the humanities rests. Relational skills can be learned and can be transferred in any context of daily life and serve to improve the quality of communication within the working environment [17][18].…”