Introduction

John Bowlby, described as one of the “three or four most important psychiatrists of the twentieth century” (Storr, 1992), died in 1990. In October 1993 a conference was held in Toronto to honor Bowlby and to take stock of his theory of attachment, its origins, influences, and implications. Several previous conferences and volumes had focused on Bowlby’s attachment theory, but the 1993 conference was unique in scope. Whereas prior conferences and volumes had concentrated on specific themes within attachment theory, research, and practice (e.g., attachment across the lifespan), this volume, which grew out of the 1993 conference, is designed to place attachment theory in its cultural and historical context (Holmes Bretherton, Grossmann, Eagle), evaluate its relation to clinical (Adam, Fonagy, Cichetti, Liotti) and to research endeavors (Belsky, Hofer, Suomi), and identify new directions in attachment work (Crittenden, Main).