Handbook of Attachment: Theory, Research, and Clinical Applications. Cassidy, Jude and Shaver, Phillip R. New York:  Guilford Press, 1999,  925 pages.

This is an impressive, comprehensive volume which explores a wide range of attachment topics. It should be considered an essential reference book for mental health practitioners who provide treatment to people of all ages. However it also has great potential value, as a reference tool, for researchers, early interventionists, school counselors, etc. The book is dedicated to John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth, and explores attachment theory as developed by John Bowlby, and furthered by his research assistant Mary Ainsworth, who did pioneering research known as the Strange Situation. Attachment theory has assumed more and more importance for clinicians as solid research continues to yield impressive results. “In the fields of social and emotional development, attachment theory is the most visible and empirically grounded conceptual framework” (p. x). Clinical reports on the impact of early parent/child relationships lean heavily on attachment theory. But the rapidly growing body of research influenced by attachment theory extends beyond the period of infancy and early childhood and is investigating adolescent and adult relationships. As originally theorized by Bowlby, attachment issues extend across the life span and attachment related behaviors do not constitute ‘regression’ when experienced beyond childhood. This rich and expanding body of research has gone in new directions and is most effective when informed by clinical work; the former must use generalities and the latter examines the specific events in an individual's life. There is a