Measuring the Ghost in the Nursery: A Summary of the Main Findings of the Anna Freud Centre - University College London Parent-Child Study

That history repeats itself, and there exists an intergenerational concordance in relationship patterns, is a fundamental assumption of the psychoanalytic model (Freud, 1940; Fraiberg et al., 1975; Bowlby, 1958; 1969; 1973, 1980). The observation is sufficiently robust to be supported by epidemiological research. Parents with a history of deprivation, neglect or abuse appear to be more likely to encounter problems at all stages of family life, including behavioural difficulties, health, educational and psychiatric problems in their children and relationship problems between family members (Frommer & O'Shea, 1973; Rutter & Madge, 1976; Rutter et al., 1983). Epidemiology cannot explain this probabilistic relationship, nor can it identify in a clinically (as opposed to statistically) significant way parents who will be able to interrupt the ‘cycle of deprivation’ and ensure that their children benefit from a secure environment. Nor has epidemiology been able to predict families where problems develop despite the apparent absence of deprivation in the history of the parental couple. Emde (1988) points to the importance of