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IN 1978 BOWLBY POSITED THAT ATTACHMENT THEORY would explain not only the creation and maintenance of strong affectional bonds in human beings, but also “the many forms of emotional distress and personality disturbance, including anxiety, anger, depression, and emotional detachment” (p.5) that result from the disruption of those bonds. In the intervening years, attachment research and theory have indeed made substantial contributions to understanding the etiology, prognosis, and treatment of personality disorders and particularly borderline conditions, which are often characterized by extreme states of anxiety, anger, depression, and emotional emptiness. Certain crucial aspects of the object relations substrate of borderline personality, including the turbulent, polarized interpersonal relationships (West and Keeler, 1994); the alternation between protective shallowness and intense anger in relationships (Fonagy, 1991; Fonagy et al. 1995, 1996; West and Keller, 1994); and the chronic fears of abandonment and intolerance of aloneness (Gunderson, 1996), have