Reinventing Your Life

by Jeffrey E. Young

First the babies “protested,” as we have noted, and exhibited great anxiety. They searched for their mothers. If another person tried to comfort them, they were inconsolable. They showed flashes of anger at their mothers. But as time passed and their mothers did not come, they grew resigned and settled into a period of depression. In this phase they were apathetic and withdrawn. They were indifferent to attempts to connect with them emotionally by the staff. If enough time passed, however, the babies came out of this depression and formed other attachments. If the mother then returned, a baby entered the third phase, detachment. The baby was cold to the mother and did not approach or show interest in her. As time passed, however, the baby’s detachment broke, and the baby became attached to the mother once again. This baby was likely to be clingy and anxious when the mother was out of sight—to have what Bowlby calls “anxious attachment” to the mother.