Abstract

Young Children in Brief Separation A Fresh Look JAMES AND JOYCE ROBERTSON DURING TIn: LAST QUARTER OF A C~NTURY MUCIlIlAS UEl':N PUULlSHED about the effects of separation from the mother in early childhood, mostly in the form of retrospective or follow-up studies. The few direct observational studies appear to have been done exclusively in hospitals and other residential institutions (Burlingham and A. Freud, 1942, 1944; Heinicke and Westheimer, I 96[); Micic, 1962; Prugh et al., 19M~; James Robertson, 19;'2, 1953, 1970; Schaffer and Callender, 1959: Spitz, 1~)45; Spitz and Wolf, l~H(); Vaughan, 1957}. These provide a consensus that young children admitted to institutional care usually respond with acute distress followed by a slow and painful process of adaptation. James The study of "Young Children in Brief Separatiou" is supported hy the British National Health SCI'viLt" The Tavistock lnsriruu- of Human Relation», and The Grant Foundation, Inc" of Xew York. To all of these our thanks are due, Young Children in Brief Separation Robertson (1953, 1970) described the phases of Protest, Despair, and Denial (later termed "Detachment"). Institution-based studies have been valuable in many ways, but have the limitation that the data they provide do not permit the responses to