Exploring in Security: Towards an Attachment-Informed Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. By: Jeremy Holmes. London:  Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2010.

In the past decade, a number of books have appeared investigating the clinical and theoretical implications of attachment theory. Although interest in attachment theory has in the past been more evident within cognitive psychotherapy, an increasing interest has appeared among psychoanalysts and psychoanalytically-oriented psychotherapists. Jeremy Holmes has been recognized as a leading figure in the attempt to build a new school of psychoanalytic psychotherapy based on attachment theory. The aim of the book is to weld together new ideas in attachment theory and psychoanalysis and to provide a new way of looking at psychoanalytic psychotherapy, that is, through the lens of attachment theory.

The title of the book introduces the fundamental idea that without a secure attachment, exploration is impossible. When applied to a psychotherapeutic context, if the patient feels insecure with the therapist, no psychotherapeutic exploration can take place. Yet, as Holmes points out, this is paradoxical in that it is this very insecurity which brings a person to therapy in the first place and which will, furthermore, be intensified in the intimate relationship with the therapist. Thus, the task of therapy is to “explore insecurity” as well as to create a space where a person can “explore in security.” The concept of attachment security and its enablement of the capacity to mentalise comprise the meta-theory on which the book is based and the key concepts from which other topics are explored.

The book is divided into two parts. Part I, “Principles” (8 chapters), describes the theoretical and evidential background for an attachment-informed psychoanalytic psychotherapy. In Part II, “Practice” (6 chapters), the theoretical ideas are applied to a number of clinical themes.

In Part I, the author first explains the evolution of attachment theory and its relationship to the concept of mentalisation. Three phases of attachment-theory research are described. The first was the development of