Moments in Bonding
“Bonding is a two-way street; parents and children interact. Although we can, at present, describe only crudely the experience of bonding from the baby’s point of view, we can nevertheless see that the baby that self-confidently attaches itself to its mother is likely to behave in ways that arouse more affectionate and spontaneous maternal responses. Conversely, a child who has suffered traumatic institutional separation from its mother will react with anger, anxious possessiveness, or self-protective detachment. This obstructive behavior, in turn, produces negative responses from the mother that increase the child’s anger, possessive clinging, or guarded apathy.”
William F. May, "The Retarded," On Moral Medicine, 2nd ed.: #98: 738.
May’s footnote 8 for this paragraph:
8. For further details, see John Bowlby, Attachment and Loss, Vol. I (New York: Basic Books, 1969), p. 340
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