Loss - Sadness and Depression

de John Bowlby

'It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of Dr Bowlby's work. . . . In practical terms, his ideas have modified and continue to influence the rearing of children and the treatment of those who are disturbed. In theoretical terms, his contributions have given psychoanalysis a shot in the arm and a biological perspective which was sadly lacking'. Anthony Storr in the Sunday times.In this third and final volume John Bowlby completes the trilogy Attachment and Loss, his much acclaimed work on the importance of the parental relationship to mental health. Here he examines the ways in which young children respond to a temporary of permenant loss of a mother-figure and the expression of anxiety, grief and mourning which accompany such loss. The theories presented differ in many ways from those advanced by Freud and elaborated by his followers, so much so that the frame of reference now offered for understanding personality developement and psychopathology amounts to a new paradigm.