John Bowlby Quotes & Sayings

Whoever may still be sceptical whether knowledge of animal behaviour can help our understanding of man can find no support from Freud. — John Bowlby

What cannot be communicated to the [m]other cannot be communicated to the self. — John Bowlby

Life is best organized as a series of daring ventures from a secure base — John Bowlby

Behind the mask of indifference is bottomless misery and behind apparent callousness, despair. — John Bowlby

for to have a deep attachment for a person (or a place or thing) is to have taken them as the terminating object of our instinctual responses."
Separation anxiety. International Journal of Psycho-Analysts, XLI, 1-25 (1959( — John Bowlby

The propensity to make strong emotional bonds to particular individuals [is] a basic component of human nature — John Bowlby

young children, who for whatever reason are deprived of the continuous care and attention of a mother or a substitute-mother, are not only temporarily disturbed by such deprivation, but may in some cases suffer long-term effects which persist
Bowlby, J., Ainsworth, M., Boston, M., and Rosenbluth, D. (1956). The effects of mother-child separation: A follow-up study. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 29, 211-249. — John Bowlby

Ever since Freud made his famous, and in my view disastrous, volte-face in 1897, when he decided that the childhood seductions he had believed to be aetiologically important were nothing more than the products of his patients' imaginations, it has been extremely unfashionable to attribute psychopathology to real-life experiences. — John Bowlby

If we value our children, we must cherish their parents — John Bowlby

It will happen but it will take time. — John Bowlby

It was regarded as almost outside the proper interest of an analyst to give systematic attention to a person's real experiences. — John Bowlby

Thus, just as animals of many species, including man, are disposed to respond with fear to sudden movement or a marked change in level of sound or light because to do so has a survival value, so are many species, including man, disposed to respond to separation from a potentially caregiving figure and for the same reasons. — John Bowlby

The stark nakedness and simplicity of the conflict with which humanity is oppressed - that of getting angry with and wishing to hurt the very person who is most loved. — John Bowlby

If a community values its children, it must cherish its mothers. — John Bowlby

risks. Thus we take it for granted that, when a relationship to a special loved person is endangered, we are not only anxious but are usually angry as well. As responses to the risk of loss, anxiety and anger go hand in hand. It is not for nothing that they have the same etymological root. — John Bowlby

We're only as needy as our unmet needs. — John Bowlby

The human psyche, like human bones, is strongly inclined towards self-healing. — John Bowlby

Thus in the right place, at the right time, and in right degree, anger is not only appropriate
but may be indispensable. It serves to deter from dangerous behaviour, to drive off a rival, or to coerce a partner. In each case the aim of the angry behaviour is the same - to protect a relationship which is of very special value to the angry person. — John Bowlby