What are attachment, Reactive Attachment Disorder and attachment therapy?
‘Attachment’ is a theoretical construct developed by Bowlby and Spitz early in the twentieth century to describe a relationship between an infant and a primary care taker, manifest in certain behaviors. The initial theory resulted from their observations of infant behavior in the setting of profound maternal and sensory deprivation. Clinicians and researchers since this time have described infants who do not present with a pattern of ‘secure attachment’ with their primary caretaker (or caretakers) as being at significant risk for later impairments in social relationships, attachments, trust and intimacy. (Bowlby, 1951; Spitz 1945). A range of appropriate and inappropriate attachment behaviors have been described as infants learn to explore the world with gradually less proximity to a familiar caregiver. Ideally, during one’s early days, weeks and months of life, an infant’s caregiver provides him or her with a secure environment that serves as a safe and secure base from which to explo
