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This is the first of two books which are intended to study the child's tie to his mother and its disturbances. It is divided into four parts and an appendix. The problem in question is discussed at length in Parts III and IV, though it is formulated briefly at the beginning of the book. Parts I and II, which represent about half the book, present the conceptual framework within which attachment and loss are studied. As the main review (see p. 183) is concerned at length with the primary objective of the book, I shall restrict myself to considering the perspective delineated in the author's presentation of the framework just alluded to. This is of the utmost importance because it goes far beyond the problem of attachment and can have wide applications to all aspects of psychoanalysis. Indeed, Parts I and II by themselves can be considered as an independent unity and may be used with great profit as a textbook on instinctive behaviour for students of psychoanalysis. Throughout ten chapters all the basic problems connected with this question are examined in a clear and informative manner, which is full of implicit suggestions for the psychoanalytical clinician. Among other things are discussed: the theories of motivation, the principles of control systems, the concept of adaptation and adaptendness, the various types of behavioural systems and their coordination, their activation and termination, the functions they fulfil, and their ontogeny. It is obvious that a knowledge of these topics will greatly enrich our clinical perspectives; the examples which could be adduced in favour of this assertion are so numerous that one feels l'embarras du choix. I mention only in passing that it seems that the concept of imprinting is bound eventually to play an important role in the psychoanalytical understanding of homosexuality. To give another example, attachment behaviour and its deviations can make intelligible cases that, if seen exclusively in the light of curren