The Making and Breaking of Affectional Bonds

John Bowlby's interest in the effects on a developing child of different forms of family experience began in 1929 when he worked for six months in a school for behaviourally challenged children. A decade later, having completed his psychiatric training, he presented his findings in a paper entitled 'The Influence of Early Environment on the Development of Neurosis and Neurotic Character'. Its publication was to spark a long and illustrious career, which helped both parents and psychologists arrive at a better understanding of the inner emotional world of the infant. This selection of key lectures by Bowlby includes the seminal one that gives the volume its title. Informed by wide clinical experience, and written with the author's well known humanity and lucidity, the lectures provide an invaluable introduction to John Bowlby's thought and work, as well as much practical guidance of use both to parents and to members of the mental health professions.