ABSTRACT
From its inception, attachment theory was a theory of psychopathology as well as normal development. It was concerned both with the formation and normal course of attachment relationships and the implications of atypical patterns of attachment. Bowlby's attachment theory is a theory of psychopathology as well as a theory of normal development. It contains clear and specific propositions regarding the role of early experience in developmental psychopathology, the importance of ongoing context, and the nature of the developmental process underlying pathology. Attachment theory provides a third alternative to the shadow box debate about whether early experience causes later outcomes in the manner of an immutable trait or bears only a coincidental association to outcome due to its link to later experience or third factors such as SES.
