ABSTRACT
Dr John Bowlby took over ten years to write his book Attachment, Separation and Loss, in which he first formulated Attachment Theory. He wrote it originally as three separate books, over the period of 1969 to 1980, though they are now put together as one. Another characteristic of our bonds to attachment figures that Bowlby recognized, is that they endure. That is to say, they are not easily abandoned; although they change as we get older, they persist and become supplemented by new bonds. Bowlby claimed that there are two essential features of attachment figures. One is that they serve the biological function of securing protection for survival. The second is that they will meet a psychological need for security, which is vital for human development. Bowlby had a very different background from many of his contemporaries in both medicine and psychoanalysis, because he was equally interested in ethology, which is the scientific study of animals.
