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In Treating Attachment Disorders: From Theory to Therapy, Karl Heinz Brisch proposes that there can be clinical applications of attachment theory. A child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist, neurologist, and training psychoanalyst in Munich, Brisch is a gifted clinician who attempts to bridge the gap between the laboratory and the consulting room.
In the first two sections of the book, devoted to a history of attachment theory and its basic concepts starting with Bowlby's pioneering work in the 1960s, and then an overview of attachment disorders, Brisch prepares the reader for the core of the book, his own contributions to the field.
While acknowledging that he cannot adequately cover the current state of empirical attachment research, Brisch does provide a useful review of the literature of attachment research arranged chronologically. In this section he also provides background for the controversies attachment theory stirred within psychoanalysis. He highlights the early longitudinal studies of Mary Ainsworth and her team of developmental psychologists, the test-like standard procedure, the Strange Situation, which she developed to study children's attachment and separation behaviors in a laboratory setting. He goes on to describe and illustrate research tools such as the Adult Attachment Interview and the Separation Anxiety Test.
Brisch focuses on the mother's contribution to the quality of the attachment that over time the infant develops to her. While acknowledging the impact on attachment of the infant's genetic endowment, as well as of life-disruptive events, he does give primary responsibility to the role of mothering. In particular, he discusses “sensitive behavior” by an attachment figure as a requirement for the development of secure attachment. He believes that sensitive behavior can be taught and describes the procedure he and his colleagues in Ulm, Germany,