A Secure Base: Clinical Applications of Attachment Theory [Paperback]

John Bowlby (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0415006406 | ISBN-13: 978-0415006408 | Publication Date: August 25, 1998 | Edition: 1

In this collection of lectures Dr Bowlby describes recent findings, and gives an outline of the main features of attachment theory, now widely recognised as a most productive conceptual framework within which to organise the evidence. In the final lecture he shows how this knowledge, when applied to analytically oriented psychotherapy, helps both to clarify the aims of therapy and to guide the therapist in his or her own work.
This collection will be welcomed by students as a lucid introduction to the field, by professionals who are still unfamiliar with recent developments, as well as by those eager to extend their existing knowledge.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This book is eminently readable and, although it is not an in-depth study, it provides us with a comprehensive index of other works. It is to be highly recommended as an introduction to all the latest work on the subject. - Nursing Times

Written in a clear and readable style, the book provides a valuable introduction to Bowlbys thinking. It will help ensure that he is remembered not as the author of a controversial and potentially divisive theory of maternal deprivation but as one of the arch integrators of child development. - Stephen Wolkind, British Medical Journal

This new series of eight lectures on the application of attachment theory to the clinical problems of child psychiatry is an excellent introduction to Bowlbys work. - Anthony Storr, Good Book Guide

A Secure Base is an instructive and helpful book. - A.H. Brafman, British Journal of Psychotherapy

About the Author

The late John Bowlby was Child and Family Psychiatrist at The Tavistock Clinic and an internationally renowned writer in the area of child psychiatry.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (August 25, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415006406
• ISBN-13: 978-0415006408
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,329,339 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Must read for parents & mental health professionals & patients, November 29, 2010

By 

James V. Batley "Jim Smiling" (Gaithersburg, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Secure Base: Clinical Applications of Attachment Theory (Paperback)

Bowlby is one of top three developmental psychology experts highlighted in a massive mental health survey by the US National Institutes of Health. These essays, originally given as talks to medical professionals, are the easiest exposition of the attachment theory that I know of. Bowlby was the chief developer of the theory and he explains it well.

Attachment theory is a great advance on earlier work by Freud and others. It is based on true science, reproducible experiments, rather than theorizing based on the fuzzy memories of early childhood. And it explains much of observable human emotional bonding behavior. The easiest to observe is mother as a "secure base" to which the child as expeditionary force stays in touch with, and, when unsure, returns to.

His little noticed or further explored remarks on parent/child inversion of nurture/attachment instincts has been of special value to my understanding of myself and some others. Check "inverted", "invert", "inversion" in Amazon search or index of book. It is a difficult concept to get a handle on. Requires much self-examination. It is understandable that successors have not developed this part of Bowlby's great work further.