Freud and Separation AnxietyThe disappearance of the nanny would have precipitated a now widely acknowledged elementary and powerful anxiety known as “separation anxiety.” In my discussion of separation anxiety, I depend heavily on the work of John Bowlby and his conceptualization of the origin and consequences of this anxiety. I use Bowlby because his trilogy, Attachment and Loss, is already recognized as the classic statement on separation anxiety, and as a significant contribution to the psychology of childhood in general. It is equally helpful that Bowlby writes out of a psychoanalytic background, In which he ties his concept of separation anxiety into Freud’s theoretical writing on anxiety.98 Before proceeding, perhaps I should make it clear that I do not intend to argue that Freud suffered from anything like a debilitating case of separation anxiety. I do believe, however, that Freud had a moderate and significant degree of separation anxiety. But let us first take up Bowlby’s definition of this condition. The prototypical separation anxiety is the intense anxiety generated in the child by separation from its mother or mother-figure. The loss may be temporary, as when the mother leaves for a few weeks, or permanent, as when brought on by her death. A crucial period during which such separation can have most profound and enduring effects is in early childhood — which for Bowlby, as for Freud, means the first four or five years.99 Freud, of course, attached a similar importance to this period; in particular, Freud wrote that “the periods between the ages of two and four seem to be the most important.”100 When a child is separated from its mother, the anxiety response goes through three stages, only the first of which is properly called separation anxiety, although all three reactions are closely related to each other. The first phase, “protest,” is found to raise the problem of anxiety; the next, “despair,” raises the issues of grief and mourning; and the last, “detachment, raises the issue of defense.”101 The first phase of protest is probably familiar to anyone who has observed and reflected upon the vigorous way in which children so often protest when their mothers leave them, or when they are left in a new place (such as a hospital or even a nursery school). Bowlby’s research and writings powerfully document the frequently long-term effects of such separations when they are permanent or repeated throughout childhood. One case cited by Bowlby is especially relevant: a 1919 report by Helene Deutsch on a little boy who was brought up by nannies because his mother was working. When he was just two years old his first nurse left and was replaced by a second. Despite the fact that he remained at home and that his mother was there every |