ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses an important aspect of John Bowlby’s legacy, namely, the contribution of attachment theory to the understanding of the therapeutic relationship (Bowlby, 1979, pp. 143–160). Attachment theory holds that the behavioral/motivational system controlling attachment behavior is likely to become active “from the cradle to the grave,” whenever a person is distressed, ill, or afraid (1979, p. 129). This activation results in the person’s attaining or retaining physical or emotional proximity “to another differentiated and preferred individual, conceived as stronger or wiser” (p. 129). Patients engaged in a therapeutic relationship are likely to feel distressed, ill, or afraid while discussing their ailments with the therapist and to consider the therapist as wiser or stronger than themselves: the patients’ attachment behavior, therefore, is directed, sooner or later, toward the therapist.
