Attachment

This first volume of John Bowlby’s Attachment and Loss series examines the nature of the child’s ties to the mother. Beginning with a discussion of instinctive behavior, its causation, functioning, and ontogeny, Bowlby proceeds to a theoretical formulation of attachment behavior—how it develops, how it is maintained, what functions it fulfills.In the fifteen years since Attachment was first published, there have been major developments in both theoretical discussion and empirical research on attachment. The second edition, with two wholly new chapters and substantial revisions, incorporates these developments and assesses their importance to attachment theory.

Bowlby’s magisterial trilogy analyzes the impact of attachment, separation, and loss, and this first volume focuses on the critical role of the bond between mother and infant in emotional development. Allan Schore, whose pioneering synthesis of neurobiology with attachment research has shown how the brain gets into the act, contributes a foreword that catapults Bowlby’s legacy into the new millennium.

New York Times Book Review

The most complete examination of the implications of attachment and loss of mother to infant yet written...an excellent definitive work of great importance.

John Bowlby is honorary staff member of the Tavistock Clinic in London.