ABSTRACT
People can be attached to a multiplicity of things: human beings, money, job, prestige, home, land and other possessions. Appearance and health are often taken for granted, but if someone loses a breast or an arm or becomes seriously ill, then they understand the great importance of their attachment to the body and its condition. The attachment between people is the most important to understand, as it is usually the loss of someone close to us that triggers off the deepest grief. The English psychiatrist John Bowlby has researched into attachment and separation throughout his life. He has gathered all his reflections and experience into the three-volume work Attachment and Loss. Bowlby regards a close attachment to one or more people as just as important as food and drink. A baby is born with the ability to develop behaviour patterns that make his mother respond.
