John Bowlby – author of <i>Maternal Care and Mental Health</i> (1951) but probably not the author of <i>Child Care and the Growth of Love</i> (1953)

Summary Bowlby’s Maternal Care and Mental Health and its abridgement Child Care and the Growth of Love present two claims. The first (MCMH1) holds that children develop better mental health when they experience care from at least one familiar caregiver. The second (MCMH2) states that a child’s development and well-being depend on their mother’s constant presence and attention. Archival material suggests that the popular abridgement was written by Margery Fry rather than Bowlby, based on an interpretation of Maternal Care and Mental Health supporting MCMH2 and incorporating extracts supporting this conclusion. This may have contributed to enduring misconceptions about Bowlby’s theoretical position.