Helping both parents and psychologists to 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.

Chapter 1 Psychoanalysis and Child Care*Originally published in Sutherland, J. D. (ed.) (1958) Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Thought. London: Hogarth Press. Reprinted by permission of the Hogarth Press.; Chapter 2 An Ethological Approach to Research in Child Development*Originally published in British Journal of Medical Psychology (1957) 30: 230-40.; Chapter 3 Childhood Mourning and its Implications for Psychiatry*Originally published in American Journal of Psychiatry (1961) 118: 481-98. Copyright, 1961, The American Psychiatric Association. Reprinted by permission.; Chapter 4 Effects on Behaviour of Disruption of an Affectional Bond*Originally published in Thoday, J. M. and Parker, A. S. (eds.) (1968) Genetic and Environmental Influences on Behaviour. Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd. Reprinted by permission of The Eugenics Society.; Chapter 5 Separation and Loss within the Family*Originally published in Anthony, E. J. and Koupernik, C. (eds.) (1970) The Child in His Family Volume 1. New York: John Wiley. Copyright © 1970 John Wiley & Sons Inc. Reprinted by permission.; Chapter 6 Self-Reliance and Some Conditions that Promote it*Originally published in Gosling, R. G. (ed.) (1973) Support, Innovation and Autonomy. London: Tavistock Publications. Reprinted by permission of The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations.; Chapter 7 The Making and Breaking of Affectional Bonds*Originally published in British Journal of Psychiatry (1977) 130: 201-10 and 421-31. Reprinted by permission of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.;