Attachment Theory is one of the most important fields of developmental psychology. It describes how infants relate and connect to their caregivers and how this effects development of personality into adulthood. Especially in terms of self-esteem and relating to others. It poses that the drive to ‘attach’ (seek connection and proximity to caregivers, especially in times of need) is a fundamental and formative human need. When experiencing the caregiver as a ‘secure base’ to attach to, the infant can thrive in exploring the world in ways it finds meaningful. If the secure base is unavailable, unpredictable or even frightening, development is impaired and obstructed – with far-reaching consequences. Children learn to attach ‘securely’ or ‘insecurely/disorganized,’ and this conditioning generally persists into adulthood.

Instead of Freud’s angle, which put the emphasis on the presumed frustrated and repressed fantasies of children, it claims that it is actually real experiences that are formative (funnily enough, this is where Freud started out in 1895, until after publishing on Hysterics, he switched to focussing on fantasies). In the Minnesota Longitudinal Study (Alan Sroufe & co), they confirmed this by studying about 200 babies – from before they were born until they were in their 40s (and had their own children). Constantly testing and reviewing development in all different aspects. They found that experiences create representational models, which in turn influences experiences. (Ie, an infant experiences rejection and starts to expect, anticipate rejection from others).

Discovery and research started in the 50’s by John Bowlby. It has been researched and expanded upon since then. Main contributors have been:
– Mary Ainsworth (observing infant-parent dynamics and discovering the main attachment strategies, The Strange Situation Experiment: for assessing attachment strategies in infants between 1 – 3 years old).
– Mary Main & Erik Hesse (Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), for assessing attachment representational maps in adults & the discovery and expansion of the Disorganized attachment category).
– Dan P. Brown, David S. Elliott & co. (development of Three Pillars method for Attachment repair).
Other important contributors include: Howard Steele, Alan Sroufe (& co), Carol George, Patricia Crittenden, Beatrice Beebe, Marinus van IJzendoorn (& co), Giovanni Liotti.

Attachment Theory recently became more popular because of references by Gabor Maté, Bessel van der Kolk, the books by Amir Levine and general awareness of the impact of childhood and transgenerational trauma. However the popular psychology videos and algorithms scratch only the surface of this complex and layered field.