ABSTRACT
People's work often brings them into contact with children whose parents were unable to care for them, leaving others to assume this duty. They have often endured multiple separations and losses. Bowlby postulated that humans are bio-psychologically motivated by the need for attachment and that our survival is inextricably linked to and dependent upon the capacity to establish and maintain emotional ties to others. Operational from birth and evident across the life span, especially at times of crisis, the "instincts" of crying, reaching out, and holding are the functional expressions of a biological imperative with evolutionary origins. Bowlby was emphatic that we need to account for the actual experiences that infants and children endure and to try as much as possible to keep in focus what has probably happened to them. The Adult Attachment Interview outlines individual differences in how parents represent their childhood history.
