Joyce Robertson

Joyce Robertson (27 March 1919 – 12 April 2013) was a British psychiatric social worker, child behavioural researcher, childcare pioneer and pacifist, who was most notable for changing attitudes to the societally acceptable, institutionalised care and hospitalisation of young children, that was prevalent. In the late 1940s Robertson worked with Anna Freud first at the Well Baby Clinic, a department of the Hampstead Child Therapy Clinic. She was later joined by her husband James Robertson. In 1965, both of them moved to the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations to work with John Bowlby on the Young Children in Brief Separation project and the development of attachment theory. This was to research the mental state and psychological development of children who underwent brief separation from their parents. Later in her career, Robertson worked with her husband to produce a series of celebrated documentary films that highlighted the reaction of small children who were separated from their parents.

Personal life Robertson (nee User) Robertson left Grammar school in 1933 when she was 14 and enrolled for evening classes at the Workers' Educational Association. In 1939, Joyce met her future husband James Robertson in Birmingham while he was studying the humanities at the Fircroft College of Adult Education and she was studying at the Hillcroft College for working women. and write detailed observations on index cards. A few weeks later, James Robertson was employed by Freud as a boilerman, fire watcher and handyman.

Robertson took time off for the birth of her first daughter in 1944. In 1945, she had to take her 13-month old baby into hospital for treatment. This experience sparked Robertson's interest in the field of childcare. Robertson understood that the parents would need help in understanding their infant's new development stage, once they moved out of the clinic.

In 1952, her husband James made the film A Two-Year-Old Goes to Hospital Robertson and Bowlby were planning to abandon the documentary since the child being studied (Laura) did not cry very much. She had been in hospital for eight days, admitted for a hernia operation. In the film the mother is seen leaving the child, assured by the nurse that she would settle down when she leaves. When the mother does leave, Laura reacts violently and her mood changes for the worst. By the end of the stay it appears that Laura is withdrawn and depressed.

Early case study In 1954, Robertson's second daughter, Jean, who at the time was four years old, required a tonsillectomy. The paper was published in 1956 in the journal The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child and had several pages of comments by Anna Freud.

In summarising the paper, Robertson concluded that her presence and responsiveness to questions enabled Jean to cope with the fear of hospitalisation. The reassuring words and presence of her mother enabled Jean to retain trust in Joyce and enabled her to go home happy. In 1960, Bowlby published a paper, Grief and Mourning in Infancy and Early Childhood. In the paper Bowlby made what many in the profession considered sweeping generalisations without evidence stating that:

acute distress is the usual response of young children (between about six months and three to four years of age) to separation from the mother, regardless of circumstances and quality of substitute care; and, by implication, that there is no distinction between the responses of these infants at different levels of development. Anna Freud contributed to the argument with a review of Bowlby's articles. She criticised his approach stating:

Neither the Hampstead Nurseries nor hospitals and other residential homes have offered ideal conditions for the study of separation per se. We, as well as Dr Bowlby, used data collected under circumstances where the children had to adapt not only to the loss of the mother but also to the change from family to group life, a transition very difficult to achieve for any young child...

Freud stressed the lack of relevant data in which to draw conclusions:

we need to supplement our observations, excluding group or ward conditions.

In a paper published in 1961 entitled Maternal deprivation: Toward an empirical and conceptual re-evaluation, the paediatrician and psychologist Leon J. Yarrow conducted a review of the research and concluded that maternal separation had never been studied under pure conditions. Yarrow believed the complicating factors were always present. there is a passing reference to the complexities of the institutional situation, and a disappointing emphasis on the assertion that regardless of age and conditions of care, the young child's response to separation is usually the mourning sequence initiated by acute distress:

The subjects in the various studies differ, e.g. there is a variance in age, the type of home varies, the type of hospital or clinic they visit varies, the type of care they receive and the length of time they at the away from home. In spite of different backgrounds and expectations of the observers, the findings are remarkable in one aspect. That is once a child is aged six months, they tend to respond to the event of separation from mother in certain typical ways.

Without citing the evidence regarding the influence of each class of variable, Bowlby asserts that by far the most important variable is the absence of the mother, and dismisses other variables as relatively unimportant. The purpose of the project was to study the influence of factors such as age, level of maturity and object constancy, previous parent-child relationships and quality of substitute care, on the responses of young children to separation from their mother, seeking to identify optimal substitute care. The subjects were between 1.5 and 2.5 years old, healthy, loved and never previously out of their mothers care. The methods involved non-statistical naturalist observations throughout day while the Robertsons were away, using checklists and tape recordings. During the 1950's, James Robertson had used a 16 mm film camera to study the reactions of young children who were admitted to hospital for treatment, and he planned to make 20 minute Cinéma vérité recordings every day for later study. and single residential child They were allowed to become familiar with the Robertson home. In the summary section, the Robertsons concluded that Bowlby had overgeneralised James Robertson's earlier findings about how children respond in institutional settings. They concluded by stating:

Our findings do not support Bowlby's generalisations about the responses of young children to separation from the mother per se, nor do they support his theory on grief and mourning in infancy and early childhood. ... but we continue to share his concern about the potential harm associated with early separation from the mother. They were told that their film was not going to be shown. However, they decided to take along the film and a projector, on the off-chance that they could show a segment. whose remit was to promote understanding of the emotional needs of infants and young children. and as well as promoting their films.

Awards In 2003, Robertson and her husband were awarded the Bowlby-Ainsworth Award for Documenting And Improving The Lives Of Young Children In Difficult Circumstances.