The Child's Tie to his Mother: Attachment Behaviour

I began by stating the two facts which have struck me as new: that a woman's strong dependence on her father merely takes over the heritage of an equally strong attachment to her mother, and that this earlier phase has lasted for an unexpectedly long period of time.

Everything in the sphere of this first attachment to the mother seemed to me so difficult to grasp in analysis …

Understanding of the response of a child to separation or loss of his mother-figure turns on an understanding of the bond that ties him to that figure. In psychoanalytic writings discussion of this theme has been conducted in terms of object relations.1 Thus in any description of traditional theory the terminology of object relations must often be used; in the presentation of a new theory, however, terms such as ‘attachment’ and ‘attachment-figure’ are preferred.

For long, psychoanalysts have been at one in recognising a child's first human relationship as the foundation stone of his personality; but there is as yet no agreement on the nature and origin of that relationship. No doubt because of its very importance differences are sharp and feelings often run high. Although it can now be taken for granted that all are agreed on the empirical fact that within twelve months almost all infants have developed a strong tie to a mother-figure,2 there is no consensus on how quickly this comes about, by what