ABSTRACT
In Victorian times the prescription for children—now thankfully blown away—was that they should be "seen but not heard". In our society today, elderly people are neither "seen" nor "heard" in the sense of being fully valued, or perceived as playing any worthwhile role. Bowlby, in his formulation of Attachment Theory, did not directly address the issue of gender. He chose to study attachments within the mother–child relationship, in animals as well as humans, to establish that attachment is instinctive, regardless of species. Through his many observations, Bowlby was able to show that the ingredients in attachments in early life that really matter are the proximity and availability in a responsive manner of our primary attachment figures. The two factors of proximity and availability of our attachment figures that Bowlby stressed continue to play an enormous part in the lives of older people, providing not only a sense of security, but also a continuing ability to "explore".
