ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the links between attachment behaviour in an infant-mother couple and the development of structures in the infant brain that are relevant to affectional bonds and relationships. The enduring tie to a twin is a bond on the level of early parental relationships. Anna Freud notes that breaking the tie to a twin is of the same libidinal order as breaking a tie with mother. Attachment theory forms the framework within which Schore understands neuro-biological development in the infant. He believes that interactive affect regulation is at the centre of early development and stresses the psychobiological rather than the purely psychological nature of development. He defines psychopathology in terms of the dysregulation of affect. The self-regulating system is the repository of elements of the attachment relationship with the primary object and it mediates the functioning of the unconscious mind. The cortico-limbic system is thus the neurological substrate of the unconscious.
