ABSTRACT
Attachment behaviour is itself, biologically based, initially described in relation to infants seeking closeness to safety in the face of what they perceive as a threat in their immediate environment, as any young dependent animal does. Using attachment ideas can help us to understand emotional patterning in families as well as throw light on idiosyncratic difficulties for some individuals in becoming and being parent. As long as the significant model of family predominantly favoured by early researchers in the field—the mother-child unit—is not viewed as the universal model for how children should be raised, attachment models can offer valuable clinical lens through which view both good and bad aspects of parenting. In spite of widespread professional recognition of social and cultural diversity in child rearing, the preferred presumption of attachment theory as it evolved throughout the author working life was that infants and mothers had the primary bond through which security of emotion, intelligence, and mind are constructed.
