Controversial yet powerfully influential to this day, this classic collection of Bowlby's lectures offers important guidelines for child rearing based on the crucial role of early relationships.

In this classic work of psychology John Bowlby examines the processes that take place in attachment and separation and shows how experimental studies of children provide us with a recognizable behaviour pattern which is confirmed by discoveries in the biological sciences.

Informed by wide clinical experience, and written with the author's well known humanity and lucidity, these lectures provide an invaluable introduction to Bowlby's work, as well practical guidance for parents and mental health professionals.