ABSTRACT
The foster care system fails to provide reliable, sustaining relationships. The propensity of the system to look to the external world for explanations and solutions to problems too often overlooks the child's internal distress. Viewing the interaction between John and his caseworker through the lens of attachment theory, people can see that John has an ambivalent attachment to his foster family. It seems staggering that any child leaves the system unscathed, they manage to grab hold of whichever adults come their way, to make use of whatever they have to offer, and to keep weaving even when the tapestry is hanging by a thread. The mental health of foster children may not be on the agendas of the agencies responsible for feeding and clothing and housing foster children. As the tastes of "comfort food" contain the memories of the nurturing mother, whether or not consciously evoked, the comforting other, is embedded in the process of self-soothing.
