El apego

In Attachment, Bowlby examines the nature of the child's attachment to the mother through his celebrated careful investigations of the enormous impact of early separation from the mother figure. Likewise, he shows how empirical studies with children have made us discover very specific behavioral patterns, which have been subsequently confirmed by the biological sciences. Bowlby makes it very clear that human attachment is an instinctive reaction and as crucial to our survival as feeding and reproduction. Beginning with a discussion of instinctual behavior, its causation, functioning, and ontogeny, Bowlby proceeds to a theoretical formulation of attachment behavior: how it develops, how it is maintained, and what functions it serves.