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It is generally agreed that the patterns of secure or anxious attachment observed in young children are relatively stable over time. In reviewing a study of adoption Bowlby states: ‘Findings from this and other studies support the hypothesis that there is a sensitive phase in early life after which development of the capacity to make secure and discriminating attachments becomes progressively more difficult - or, put another way, that the pattern in which a child's attachment behaviour is already organised tends to persist and as he grows older to be modified less and less completely by his current experience’ (Bowlby 1982). This position has been criticised as too pessimistic, for example, by the Clarkes, and various individual case histories do indeed demonstrate the remarkable capacity of children to recover from appalling deprivation and adversity, given sufficiently devoted care (Clarke & Clarke 1976). However, we do not know how these children fared in later life, and in general the outcomes of early loss of attachment figures and the disruption of affectional ties support Bowlby's hypothesis. Children brought up in care, for example, tend to make poor marriages and to have serious difficulties in the care of their own children (Quinton & Rutter 1983). Loss of parents by death or desertion predisposes women to later depression in the context of adversity and negative life events (Brown & Harris 1978). There also appears to be a connection between early loss, particularly that arising from family discord and divorce, and suicide or suicidal attempts (Adam 1982). A number of different patterns have been described, by Bowlby himself and by others, of the later outcomes of early failure in the development of secure attachment. One pattern is that of ‘compulsive independence’ where the individual denies the need for close ties with others, asserts that he faces the world alone and trusts no-one but himself. If this pattern is particularly, though not ex