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A Secure Base: Clinical Applications of Attachment Theory

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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.