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Michael Rutter

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Professor Sir Michael Rutter (born 1933) is the first consultant of child psychiatry in the United Kingdom. Although he has been described as the "father of child psychology", he would be more accurately characterized as the father of modern child psychiatry.

Professor Sir Michael’s work includes: early epidemiologic studies (Isle of Wight and Inner London); studies of autism involving a wide range of scientific techniques and disciplines, including DNA study and neuroimaging; links between research and practice; deprivation; influences of families and schools; genetics; reading disorders; biological, social protective, and risk factors; interactions of biological and social factors; stress; longitudinal as well as epidemiologic studies, including childhood and adult experiences and conditions; and continuities and discontinuities in normal and pathological development. The British Journal of Psychiatry credits him with a number of "breakthroughs" in these areas and Professor Sir Michael Rutter is also recognized as contributing centrally to the establishment of child psychiatry as a medical and biopsychosocial specialty with a solid scientific base.

He has published over 40 books including 'Maternal Deprivation Reassessed' (1972) which New Society describes as 'A classic in the field of child care'. In this work he qualified the theory of Maternal Deprivation which had been developed by Dr John Bowlby and expressed for popular consumption in 'Maternal Care and Mental Health' (1951) .That theory was that children were damaged by separation from their mother or mother figure and led to the mistaken belief that they should stay at home to look after the family.

Children playing

Although there was a great deal of professional disquiet at the time reflected in the World Health Organisation (WHO) publication 'The Deprivation of Maternal Care. A Reassessment of its effects'it is Rutter who is generally credited with undermining this theory. He was able to point to several flaws in Bowlby's theory. For example Bowlby's early writings were widely understood to mean that there was a biological need to develop a selective attachment with just one person which he called 'monotropy'. This idea has been abandoned. It also came to be appreciated that social development was affected by later as well as earlier relationships. Early accounts had also emphasized the need for selective attachments to develop during a relatively 'brief sensitivity period' with the implication that even good parenting that is provided after that watershed is too late. This too required modification. Lastly, Bowlby drew parallels between the development of attachments and imprinting. It became apparent that there were more differences than similarities and this comparison was dropped later on and is no longer seen as helpful by most writers on attachment. According to Schaffer in 'Social Development' it is now generally accepted that social convention accounts for whatever differences are observed amongst mothers and fathers.

Rutter has honorary degrees from the Universities of Leiden, Louvain, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Chicago, Minnesota, Ghent, Jyväskylä, Warwick, East Anglia and Cambridge. He has remained in practice until late into his career and the Michael Rutter Centre for Children and Adolescents, based at Maudsley Hospital, London, is named after him.

Rutter is an honorary member of the British Academy and is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society. He is a Founding Fellow of the Academia Europaea and the Academy of Medical Sciences and was knighted in 1992. The citation for his knighthood reads: Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, University of London.

References

  1. Pearce, J (2005). Eric Taylor: The cheerful pessimist. Child and Adolescent Mental Health,Feb;10(1):40–41.
  2. Kolvin, I (1999). The contribution of Michael Rutter. British Journal of Psychiatry, Jun;174:471-475.
  3. Hartman, L (2003). Review of Green & Yule, Research and Innovation on the Road to Modern Child Psychiatry. Am J Psychiatry, Jan;160:196-197.
  4. ^ Rutter, M (1981) Maternal Deprivation Reassessed, Second edition, Harmondsworth, Penguin. Cite error: The named reference "FJP" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  5. Bowlby, J (1951) Maternal Care and Mental Health, World Health Organisation WHO
  6. Ainsworth, M et al (1962 ) "Deprivation of Maternal Care: A Reassessment of its Effects" Geneva: World Health Organization, Public Health Papers, No.14.
  7. Rutter, M (1995). Clinical Implications of Attachment Concepts: Retrospect and Prospect , Volume. 36 No 4, p551
  8. Schaffer, R (2000) Social Development, Oxford, Blackwell

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