Attachment in Adults : Clinical and Developmental Perspectives

"Attachment theory is a very hot topic now, with application to developmental psychology, social/personality psychology, clinical psychology, and relationships research. The editors have collected some of the best thinkers and researchers on the topic and they present an outstanding group of examples of the range and application of the attachment approach. This is a book that, because of its life-span approach, will have something for everyone interested in the social side of human experience." --Steve Duck, Ph.D., University of Iowa "The editors have done an impressive job. This book is a wide-ranging and provocative volume that extends various facets of attachment theory and research to adult relationships and psychotherapy. Especially valuable is the integration of Bowlby's theorizing on loss into a deeper understanding of insecure attachment and therapeutic change." --Inge Bretherton, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison "This is a wonderfully diverse and substantive set of papers on a topic of tremendous interest to clinicians and developmentalists alike. The range, quality and depth of the papers is exceptional; this text will be required reading for anyone interested in understanding both normal and pathological patterns of adult attachment. A broad, sophisticated examination of questions intrinsic to adult attachment theory has been much needed and will be much welcomed." --Arietta Slade, Ph.D., City College and Graduate Center of the City University of New York "This book is on the cutting-edge of information about attachment. Although the book's aim is to explicate aspects of adult attachment many papers, and especially the first comprehensive summary chapter, details aspects of infant and child attachment as well. It is a thoroughgoing presentation of data available on the attachment system from infancy through adulthood....Like attachment research itself, the editors undertake an ambitious assignment to extend this research to adolescence, adulthood, aging, as well as to investigate the relationship between attachment classifications and psychopathology. This book admirably achieves its goal....This book is interesting to read, highly informative, and essential for those interested in a developmental perspective." --Doris K. Silverman, PhD, New York University "The reader is introduced to the overall concepts of attachment theory, how they evolved from and complement existing psychoanalytic-object relations theories, and how they can be applied to a variety of treatments....Taken together, [the chapters] succeed in advancing our perspectives on adults, indicate its potential to accommodate new findings as they are discovered, as well as suggest implications for prevention throughout the life cycle." --"Clinical Social Work Journal"