St. Mary's Bridge Home Case Study

This week I had the opportunity to gain just a bit more insight into the lives of the children at St. Mary's Bridge Home. I had the job of listening into conversations the children at Bridge Home had with their parents, and it was not what I expected. After reading the stories of neglect from the files of these kids I expected cold DCF ( Department of Children and Families) mandated phone calls. Instead I heard what I can only describe as sincere love and longing over the phone. This is the Concept of “Kinship” David Shipler outlines in Chapter Seven of the working poor. Even through adversity there is a persistent desire to continue connecting with each other. These complex family relationships have both scientific and philosophical routes that intersect with readings and articles presented in this post. This phenomenon is in line with Psychologist John Bowlby’s theory of attachment. In Bowlby's theory the main reason for attachment is security. Bottomline, we know that when we are around those we know, and are securely attached too, we have better odds of survival. taking an aristotelian approach to this phenomenon we can also define these relationships as those of utility where each party gains something from the other. Referring back to Maslow's Hierarchy of needs theory we can pinpoint that each party, in this
It is clear that the characters in this chapter had a much better chance of survival with each other than without. Why then do we see the phenomenon of insecure attachment and inability to form relationships when the going gets tough? This concept is brought up in the article on the two different tendencies of relationships. While adversity brings some people closer it also has the tendency to tear others apart. This is where our agency as PULSE students comes into