ABSTRACT

Myron Hofer's decades-long work, using an animal model, on the biological subsystems entailed in the attachment bond has provided an empirical basis for all modern conceptualizations of the way the attachment bond functions in earliest life. Through Hofer's work, we now understand that the attachment bond comprises multiple subsystems, whereby the maternal partner shapes and regulates the physiologic, neurophysiologic, and psychological functioning of the offspring. If one asks what exactly is lost when one is separated from an attachment figure, one has to go to Hofer's work. Put another way, his work provides an indispensable basis for understanding why separation can be a trauma.

In this communication, Hofer not only reprises his previous research findings vis-a-vis the effects of separation on the basic systems of stress management, but he also offers an important new conceptualization of a mechanism whereby certain positive maternal behaviors may enhance the chances that infants will repeat those behaviors in mothering the next generation.