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This book is the first of two volumes giving an account of 20 years’ investigation of the mother-infant relationship, by the author, his co-workers and others. The important practical consequences of this investigation, such as the providing of guidance in the handling of unavoidable separations, are well known. This book would be of immense value if it did no more than provide a convenient and very readable summary of these findings. In the opinion of the present reviewer the achievement goes far beyond this limited aim. The book illustrates and discusses an application of scientific method in psychology and makes an important contribution to the building of a framework of concepts within which research in many distinct fields may fruitfully be coordinated.
An unhappy difference exists between the physical and the psychological sciences. The chemist, the physicist, the astronomer, the mathematician and the engineer recognise a common physical world in which the findings of each mesh together and help and reinforce each other. The psychological sciences are fragmented. The several varieties of subjective psychologist, the behaviourist and the neurophysiologist, not to mention the educator, the priest or the common man, have tended to live in their separate worlds without common concepts or ready communication. The time is surely ripe for this fragmentation to end, and Dr. Bowlby's book could be a catalyst for this fusion.
His basic thesis is simple and compelling. It is that the mental life of man may be understood in terms of its evolutionary context and its biological function. The central nervous system and its mental accompaniment have emerged in evolution as a contribution to species—survival, and their function may be