From the governmentalization of the body to psychic hygiene: An archaeogenealogy of specialized knowledge about childhood in England (C. P Blacker and John Bowlby) between 1946-1951

Abstract

This article focuses on the historical and philosophical analysis of specialized knowledge (eugenic and psychoanalytic) about childhood after the Second World War in England. A conceptual (archaeogenealogical) study was undertaken of two primary sources: the text on “problem families” by the eugenicist psychiatrist Carlos Blacker (1946) and the report commissioned by the WHO for fellow psychiatrist (and psychoanalyst) John Bowlby (1951). The aim was to investigate the propositions of scholars in the field of childhood about the transformation and massification of discourses related to childhood towards psychologization during this period. To this end, we carried out an analysis of the concepts used by these two authors when dealing with childhood, more particularly what is considered inadequate care, as well as their disciplinary affiliation. In Blacker, problem childhood is conceptually defined as emerging in the context of moral lack, poor heredity, and neglect of physical care. In Bowlby, we noted qualitative aspects of care such as sensitivity and maternal love and economic, social and hereditary factors are almost completely obscured when compared to the importance of psychic development.