ABSTRACT
Attachment theory is the epidemiology of modern psychotherapy and has given the working paradigm for all relational approaches to psychoanalysis. As Sir Richard Bowlby has often said at the memorial lectures, his father would be the first to admit that he had just begun the exploration of the significance of human attachment. The psyche somatic unity which D. W. Winnicott talks of as being crucial to the sense of aliveness is less a magical process that either goes right or goes wrong and is more one need to and are beginning to understand. Touch is one of the ways, the physical vehicles through which the maternal body manifests its connection to the potential other and the body other that is the baby. The therapist was surprised to discover that he was rather stunned by his response to her request. Her asking for a hug made him recognize his reluctance and catalysed for him something more than discomfort.
