ABSTRACT
Attachment theory and the empirical research it inspired can provide with a useful perspective from which to compare the two views, extended and restricted, of what is meant by unrepressed unconscious. This chapter begins by recalling some of the basic tenets of attachment theory that, although necessary for an understanding of the specifics of the theory, are often neglected even by those authors who admire J. Bowlby’s work and use it in their own studies. Bowlby studied attachment in a framework of C. Darwinian thought, considering it to be one among many behavioural dispositions that are the result of evolution. The relational goal of attachment behaviour is protection from environmental danger obtained through closeness to a member of the social group. The longitudinal studies suggest the existence in adults of both explicit memories coherent with the implicit memories of early attachment and at least three forms of dissociation between these memories.
