Mayhew, B.C.; (2005) Between love and aggression: John Bowlby's psychology in interwar Britain. Masters thesis , University of London.

Text U594146.pdf Download (4MB)

Abstract

This thesis examines the ideas of the psychoanalyst and social psychiatrist, John Bowlby. Drawing on the incipient science of ethology, Bowlby argued that psychological development was the product how social instincts, in particular the need for maternal affection, were reciprocated. While Bowlby's ideas have proved influential and enduring---his notion of the 'Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness' has underpinned the recent emergence of Evolutionary Psychology---there remains some confusion as to when he adopted his ethological approach. Popular accounts have argued that Bowlby's theorising was shaped by a conversation with the evolutionary biologist and essayist, Julian Huxley, and after reading Konrad Lorenz's King Solomon's Ring in 1952. However, as early as the 1930s Bowlby had taken up the observations of the zoologist, Solly Zuckerman, on the behaviour of monkeys and used these to anchor a model of human psychological development in which people had the potential to become loving or aggressive. This is evident in his 1939 publication, Personal Aggressiveness and War, co-authored with the economist and socialist political philosopher, Evan Durbin. My thesis, therefore, examines the construction and meaning of Bowlby's model of development in the context of inter- war Britain. I focus on how altruism, viewed idealistically and as the product of individual volition prior to World War I, increasingly came to be seen as part of people's innate psychological make-up. It is argued that Bowlby's model of development was part of the formalisation of the search for the evolved basis of altruism. This formalisation can be seen as embedded in debates over the constitution of democratic socialism with Bowlby and Durbin prominent members of G.D.H. Cole's New Fabian Research Bureau. I go on to examine the role of Bowlby's psychology in response to the rise of fascism and the prospect of the Second World War. This is understood as part a change in the framework for generating social policy, from idealistic to technological, that was cemented in the post-war government of Clement Attlee.

Download activity - last month

Export as XMLCSVJSON

Download activity - last 12 months

Export as XMLCSVJSON

Downloads by country - last 12 months

Export as JSONXMLCSV

Archive Staff Only

View Item