Freud acknowledged how difficult it is to understand why some people are able to utilize anxiety effectively for the purposes of their lives, whereas others suffer psychopathology on account of it. Bowlby has recently advanced the hypothesis that the cause of the difference is to be found in the relation of children to their mothers and their substitutes. It is upon this relationship that individuals depend for the homeostatic regulation of their reactions of anxiety. This paper is a critical evaluation of Bowlby's theory of anxiety.