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It is unfortunately rare that the insights of social science in general and psychology in particular are applied in a purposeful way to issues of
public policy. So this book of essays by British social scientists, clinicians and politicians is unusual as well as timely. Why is the application of psychological insights to political debate so inhibited? A reluctance of clinicians to expose their public face? There have been applications of attachment theory through action research projects, for example Isabel Menzies Lyth and colleagues at the Tavistock Institute following up the work of James and Joyce Robertson with a study of daycare for the under-5s. (I was involved with her also in work on the psychological needs of small children in hospital.) In his chapter on ‘Attachment in context’, Michael Rustin makes reference to this and other work. He also links attachment to the theories of containment associated with Bion, and much used by clinicians and psychoanalytically informed organizational consultants in recent times.
In general, however, psychoanalysts have spoken out on nuclear war more freely than on the dilemmas of a divided society. It is not certain even now that the world is ready for a public policy that is truly informed by psychological insights. In this book, Tessa Jowell, MP, makes reference to the scorn that Antidote, an organization founded by psychotherapists to promote ‘emotional literacy’ in politics, got even in the pages of the liberal-minded Guardian newspaper. She and Marjorie Mowlam, another Labour MP, both speak about the insecurities of politicians, which have to be denied, and the insecurities of the citizen, which have to be faced.
This book, inspired by a conference at the Tavistock Clinic in London, explores the applications of attachment theory to a wide range of policy issues. John Bowlby was foremost among psychoanalysts as a pioneer of empirical research. His ideas have been buffeted by political fashion. He was not forgiven for t