findings

• diagnosis

  • to determine what previous experiences might have caused the 44 thieves to steal, it was first necessary to distinguish between different possible personality types
  • Bowlby recognised its difficult to do this with children whose whole personality has not yet formed, but there were 6 main personality types...
• 'normal' personality

  children whose character type appear normal & stable
• depressed personality

  children who have been unstable and are now in a more/less depressed state of mind
• circular personality

  unstable children who show alternating depression & over-activity
• hyperthymic personality

  people who tend to be constantly over-active
• affectionless personality

  children characterised by lack of affection, shame & sense of responsibility
• schizoid personality


  children who show marked schizoid/schizophrenic symptoms
• how many thieves were affectionless?

  14 thieves
• out of these 14 thieves, how many experienced frequent seperations from their mother?

  12 thieves
• how many non-affectionless thieves were there?

  30 thieves
• out of the 30 non-affectionless thieves, how many experienced separation from their mother?

  5 thieves
• affectionless character e.g. 1

  at 18 months, child hospitalised because he developed diphtheria. he stayed there for 9 months, and during that time, his parents didn't visit him once
• affectionless character e.g. 2

  child placed in a foster home at 7 months when her parents split up. she moved from one foster home to another and then spent a year in a convent school before returning home at the age of 5 yrs
• how many thieves experienced early separation?

  17 thieves
• how many thieves didn't experience separation?

  27 thieves
• Bowlby reported 17 thieves who didn't experience separation had mother who were...

  'either extremely anxious, irritable or fussy or else were rigid, domineering and oppressive... these are traits that mask unconscious hostility'
• how many of the 27 thieves who didn't experience separation had fathers who openly expressed their hate to them?

  5 thieves