Writer and researcher who studied the effect on children of separation from their parents, particularly in hospitals
Joyce Robertson, who has died aged 94, made a major contribution to the care of young children who have to be away from their parents. With her husband, James Robertson, she made a series of documentaries in the 1950s and 60s, recording the behaviour of children in hospitals and in foster care. The films are still used for teaching about separation, attachment and child development.
Joyce believed that the very young should be cared for by as few people as possible, ideally the mother, and that if a child needed to be away from home, for example in hospital, then they should be accompanied by a parent or a consistent carer. When her 13-month-old daughter Katherine was in hospital for a week in 1945, Joyce was distraught that she was not allowed to visit but this was normal practice at the time. In 1954, her second daughter, Jean, then four years old, required an operation and Joyce was exceptionally allowed to accompany her in hospital. She kept notes throughout the period and her resulting paper A Mother's Observations on Her Four-Year-Old Daughter's Tonsillectomy was published in the journal the Psychoanalytic Study of the Child and in the Nursing Times.
In the paper, Joyce concluded that the mother's presence, understanding and explanations enabled Jean to cope with the fears and fantasies of being in hospital and in pain. She retained trust in her mother and went home happy. Although post-operatively she was disorientated, the next day she said: "You kept telling me to put my head on the pillow, Mummy, and you said I will have a sore throat Mummy, and it is."
In 1963 Joyce and James set up a project, Young Children in Brief Separation, at the Tavistock Institute in London, to study the influence of variables on how a young child copes with separation – ie their understanding of object constancy, the quality of substitute care and the length of separation. Joyce and James registered as foster carers to look after four young children, one at a time. The children's ages ranged from 17 months to two years and five months, and the lengths of stay from 10 to 27 days. Joyce became the fully available substitute mother, writing up her observations throughout the day. James filmed for a few minutes each day.
They also observed John, aged 17 months, for nine days in a residential nursery. The boy emotionally disintegrated in front of the camera and the Robertsons could not intervene. The impact of the film was great and this, along with research of the four children in foster care, led to the closure of residential nurseries in favour of foster care. Their research was reported in the Psychoanalytic Study of the Child in 1971 and as five films – John, Jane, Kate, Lucy and Thomas. John was included in the 2007 book 100 British Documentaries, published by the British Film Institute.
Born Joyce User in London, she left grammar school aged 14 and attended Workers' Education Association evening classes. She then went to WEA college in Birmingham, where she met James at the start of the second world war. In 1940 James, a conscientious objector, went to London to help during the devastation and chaos of the blitz. Joyce joined him in January 1941, when they heard of "a woman in Hampstead" who provided accommodation for bombed out mothers and children.
The woman was Anna Freud (the daughter of Sigmund Freud) who was setting up the Hampstead Wartime Nurseries. Joyce went to work for her as a student looking after babies. While courting Joyce, James met Freud and she appointed him as boilerman, handyman and fire watcher. By the end of the war he was a social worker. Joyce and James married in 1941.
All those working at the nurseries had to write their observations of the children's behaviour on cards, which were collected by Freud every evening. She gave talks on child development several times a week for all the staff using the material provided on the cards.
In 1948, having qualified as a psychiatric social worker, James was appointed by John Bowlby at the Tavistock Clinic to observe the reactions of children separated from their mother. Hospitals were chosen for this study because of their lack of visiting. James could not convince people that the children were much more distressed than they realised, so he made the film A Two-Year-Old Goes to Hospital (1952). When the girl featured in the film did not cry very much, James and Bowlby were going to abandon the documentary. Joyce pointed out how the child's efforts at not crying were more poignant than if she had actually been crying.
James and Joyce had two daughters and once the children had settled into school she returned to work in 1957 at the Anna Freud Centre, observing mothers and babies in the well baby clinic. Anna Freud encouraged Joyce to write further papers about her work.
On retirement from the Tavistock in 1975, Joyce and James set up the Robertson Centre, showing their films, teaching and acting as expert witnesses in the family division of the courts. Anna Freud and Dorothy Burlingham were founder members of the centre and regular, enthusiastic attendees at the annual meetings together with Dr Dermot MacCarthy and me. We were two of the nine members of the Robertson Centre. He, as paediatrician at Amersham hospital, ensured the film Going to Hospital with Mother was made there; I was the paediatric registrar (and later became a child psychiatrist).
Joyce and James travelled internationally for many years lecturing, showing the films and acting as key speakers at conferences in the US, Australia, New Zealand and Europe. Joyce was an excellent writer and speaker; simple, direct and easy to understand. It was so easy to listen to her that you absorbed ideas without realising.
James died in 1988. Their book Separation and the Very Young, a detailed account of their work including several of Joyce's papers, was published in 1989.
Joyce is survived by Katherine and Jean, two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
• Joyce Robertson, writer and researcher in child development, born 27 March 1919; died 12 April 2013 Reported by guardian.co.uk 18 hours ago.
Joyce Robertson, who has died aged 94, made a major contribution to the care of young children who have to be away from their parents. With her husband, James Robertson, she made a series of documentaries in the 1950s and 60s, recording the behaviour of children in hospitals and in foster care. The films are still used for teaching about separation, attachment and child development.
Joyce believed that the very young should be cared for by as few people as possible, ideally the mother, and that if a child needed to be away from home, for example in hospital, then they should be accompanied by a parent or a consistent carer. When her 13-month-old daughter Katherine was in hospital for a week in 1945, Joyce was distraught that she was not allowed to visit but this was normal practice at the time. In 1954, her second daughter, Jean, then four years old, required an operation and Joyce was exceptionally allowed to accompany her in hospital. She kept notes throughout the period and her resulting paper A Mother's Observations on Her Four-Year-Old Daughter's Tonsillectomy was published in the journal the Psychoanalytic Study of the Child and in the Nursing Times.
In the paper, Joyce concluded that the mother's presence, understanding and explanations enabled Jean to cope with the fears and fantasies of being in hospital and in pain. She retained trust in her mother and went home happy. Although post-operatively she was disorientated, the next day she said: "You kept telling me to put my head on the pillow, Mummy, and you said I will have a sore throat Mummy, and it is."
In 1963 Joyce and James set up a project, Young Children in Brief Separation, at the Tavistock Institute in London, to study the influence of variables on how a young child copes with separation – ie their understanding of object constancy, the quality of substitute care and the length of separation. Joyce and James registered as foster carers to look after four young children, one at a time. The children's ages ranged from 17 months to two years and five months, and the lengths of stay from 10 to 27 days. Joyce became the fully available substitute mother, writing up her observations throughout the day. James filmed for a few minutes each day.
They also observed John, aged 17 months, for nine days in a residential nursery. The boy emotionally disintegrated in front of the camera and the Robertsons could not intervene. The impact of the film was great and this, along with research of the four children in foster care, led to the closure of residential nurseries in favour of foster care. Their research was reported in the Psychoanalytic Study of the Child in 1971 and as five films – John, Jane, Kate, Lucy and Thomas. John was included in the 2007 book 100 British Documentaries, published by the British Film Institute.
Born Joyce User in London, she left grammar school aged 14 and attended Workers' Education Association evening classes. She then went to WEA college in Birmingham, where she met James at the start of the second world war. In 1940 James, a conscientious objector, went to London to help during the devastation and chaos of the blitz. Joyce joined him in January 1941, when they heard of "a woman in Hampstead" who provided accommodation for bombed out mothers and children.
The woman was Anna Freud (the daughter of Sigmund Freud) who was setting up the Hampstead Wartime Nurseries. Joyce went to work for her as a student looking after babies. While courting Joyce, James met Freud and she appointed him as boilerman, handyman and fire watcher. By the end of the war he was a social worker. Joyce and James married in 1941.
All those working at the nurseries had to write their observations of the children's behaviour on cards, which were collected by Freud every evening. She gave talks on child development several times a week for all the staff using the material provided on the cards.
In 1948, having qualified as a psychiatric social worker, James was appointed by John Bowlby at the Tavistock Clinic to observe the reactions of children separated from their mother. Hospitals were chosen for this study because of their lack of visiting. James could not convince people that the children were much more distressed than they realised, so he made the film A Two-Year-Old Goes to Hospital (1952). When the girl featured in the film did not cry very much, James and Bowlby were going to abandon the documentary. Joyce pointed out how the child's efforts at not crying were more poignant than if she had actually been crying.
James and Joyce had two daughters and once the children had settled into school she returned to work in 1957 at the Anna Freud Centre, observing mothers and babies in the well baby clinic. Anna Freud encouraged Joyce to write further papers about her work.
On retirement from the Tavistock in 1975, Joyce and James set up the Robertson Centre, showing their films, teaching and acting as expert witnesses in the family division of the courts. Anna Freud and Dorothy Burlingham were founder members of the centre and regular, enthusiastic attendees at the annual meetings together with Dr Dermot MacCarthy and me. We were two of the nine members of the Robertson Centre. He, as paediatrician at Amersham hospital, ensured the film Going to Hospital with Mother was made there; I was the paediatric registrar (and later became a child psychiatrist).
Joyce and James travelled internationally for many years lecturing, showing the films and acting as key speakers at conferences in the US, Australia, New Zealand and Europe. Joyce was an excellent writer and speaker; simple, direct and easy to understand. It was so easy to listen to her that you absorbed ideas without realising.
James died in 1988. Their book Separation and the Very Young, a detailed account of their work including several of Joyce's papers, was published in 1989.
Joyce is survived by Katherine and Jean, two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
• Joyce Robertson, writer and researcher in child development, born 27 March 1919; died 12 April 2013 Reported by guardian.co.uk 18 hours ago.