ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 explored the development of the self and emphasized the critical role of the relationship between the growing child and the significant adults and peers in the child’s life. The present chapter continues to examine the impact of early family relationships on the development of the child’s inner world, sense of self and capacity to form meaningful bonds with others. Attachments can form at any age but the most intense study by psychologists has been that of the very first relationship that forms between baby and the primary caregiver, usually, but not always, the mother. The focus here is on attachment theory, as initially proposed in detail by
Bowlby (1969), grounded in his therapeutic work as a child psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. Bowlby’s theory has been greatly extended and refined by his followers. Over the past 40 years, researchers and practitioners have gathered a substantial body of knowledge about the significance of the bond between parents and their children. The concept of attachment integrates social, emotional and cognitive aspects of the child’s mind. As Cassidy (1999: 5) observes, ‘Within this framework, attachment is considered a normal and healthy characteristic of humans throughout the lifespan, rather than a sign of immaturity that needs to be outgrown’.
