In this classic work, now reissued, extensions of the Bowlby/Ainsworth attachment theory are described. It also discusses how human beings aspire to reach ideals or, not infrequently, defensive idealizations.

The Challenge of Attachment for Caregiving proposes a model for the development of caregiving, and shows its relation to therapeutic practice while complementing and extending attachment theory. The authors place the instinctive systems for caregiving and careseeking within a theory relating them to other systems of the self, and present the material in a form that...