In the aftermath of WWII, orphans, numbering in the hundreds if not thousands, roamed the streets of London displaced in large part as a result of almost nightly areal bombing attacks. The orphan issue caught the attention of The World Health Organization (WHO), however, they had no way of getting a handle on the situation. […]

I was first introduced to the idea that a protracted period of “psychological birth” was required following actual “physical birth” after reading the 1975 book entitled Psychological Birth of the Human Infant—Symbiosis and Individuation by Margret Mahler, Fred Pine, and Anni Bergman. The authors argue that after physical birth a psychological symbiosis exists between mother and her infant. […]

Here’s your brain:   Here’s your brain on conceptualization: I do not wish to be glib here. I do, however, wish to point out that conceptualizations are not meant to be the things they conceptualize or represent. As Joseph Campbell would say of metaphors (and I paraphrase): Do not eat the menu for the meal […]

Hello. Rick here. Yes, I know, it has been awhile since you last received a Bowlby Less Traveled blog post by email. Two things happened. First, after I released my book A Question of Attachment back in 2018, I decided to take a much needed break. Second, Google decided to retire its FeedBurner service. We […]

Have you ever wondered Do bacteria have intelligence? You haven’t? Me neither. Neurobiologist Antonio Damasio has asked this question throughout his career investigating the origins of consciousness and his answer is a resounding Yes. In his book Feeling and Knowing: Making Minds Conscious, Damasio tells us that simple single-celled organisms such as bacteria do display […]