Further Reading — Chapter 15: Attachment — The Foundation of Human Connection

Annotated resources for deeper exploration. Items marked with ★ are especially recommended as starting points.

Foundational Works

★ Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and Loss, Vol. 1: Attachment. Basic Books. The foundational text — Bowlby's full statement of attachment theory, integrating ethology, evolutionary biology, and psychoanalysis. Dense and theoretically rich, but accessible to careful readers. The argument for attachment as a primary motivational system (not derivative of feeding) is laid out here with full evidence and theoretical justification. Chapters 1–6 and 11–14 are most essential for the material in this chapter.

Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of Attachment: A Psychological Study of the Strange Situation. Lawrence Erlbaum. The foundational empirical text — the methodology and initial findings from the Baltimore studies. The Strange Situation procedure and the original classification of secure, anxious-ambivalent, and avoidant patterns. Technical but readable. Essential for understanding the evidence base.

★ Main, M., & Solomon, J. (1990). Procedures for identifying infants as disorganized/disoriented during the Ainsworth Strange Situation. In M. T. Greenberg, D. Cicchetti, & E. M. Cummings (Eds.), Attachment in the Preschool Years (pp. 121–160). University of Chicago Press. The paper identifying the disorganized attachment pattern — the fourth category, and the one most consistently associated with later psychopathology. Technical, but the identification of the behavioral markers is vivid and illuminating.

On Adult Attachment

★ Hazan, C., & Shaver, P. (1987). Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52(3), 511–524. The landmark paper extending Bowlby's theory to adult romantic relationships. Hazan and Shaver's simple three-item self-report measure of adult attachment style identified the same three patterns in adults that Ainsworth found in infants, applied to romantic love. Accessible, important, and genuinely influential.

Bartholomew, K., & Horowitz, L. M. (1991). Attachment styles among young adults: A test of a four-category model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61(2), 226–244. The paper introducing the four-category model (secure, preoccupied, dismissing, fearful) and the two-dimension framework (anxiety × avoidance). The most widely used adult attachment framework in social and clinical psychology.

★ Mikulincer, M., & Shaver, P. R. (2007). Attachment in Adulthood: Structure, Dynamics, and Change. Guilford Press. The comprehensive academic account of adult attachment research — covering theory, measurement, and findings across all major domains (romantic relationships, caregiving, mental health, personality). The standard reference for the field. Not light reading but authoritative and comprehensive. Chapters 1–5 are most relevant to this chapter.

On the Adult Attachment Interview

Main, M., Kaplan, N., & Cassidy, J. (1985). Security in infancy, childhood, and adulthood: A move to the level of representation. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50(1–2), 66–104. The foundational paper introducing the Adult Attachment Interview and demonstrating the cross-generational transmission of attachment security. One of the most important papers in developmental psychology. The finding that narrative coherence (not content) predicts infant attachment security is introduced here.

Hesse, E. (2016). The Adult Attachment Interview: Protocol, method of analysis, and selected empirical studies: 1985–2015. In J. Cassidy & P. R. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of Attachment: Theory, Research, and Clinical Applications (3rd ed., pp. 553–597). Guilford Press. The comprehensive update on AAI research — 30+ years of findings on what the AAI predicts and why. Authoritative. Good for readers who want to understand the AAI at depth.

On Earned Security and Change

Roisman, G. I., Padrón, E., Sroufe, L. A., & Egeland, B. (2002). Earned-secure attachment status in retrospect and prospect. Child Development, 73(4), 1204–1219. The empirical paper examining whether earned security (secure narrative despite adverse history) produces the same outcomes as continuous security. Findings: yes, with some important nuances about the psychopathology risk that adverse history carries even with earned security. Important for understanding the limits and possibilities of attachment change.

Siegel, D. J. (1999). The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Shape Who We Are. Guilford Press. Siegel's integration of attachment theory with neuroscience — how early relational experience shapes brain development; the neural bases of internal working models; the role of reflective processing (what Siegel calls "mindsight") in producing earned security. Accessible and theoretically important. Chapters 3, 4, and 9 are most relevant.

On Attachment-Based Therapy

★ Johnson, S. M. (2004). The Practice of Emotionally Focused Therapy: Creating Connection (2nd ed.). Brunner-Routledge. The foundational text on Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) — a couples therapy approach grounded in attachment theory. EFT is among the most empirically supported couples interventions. Practically important for therapists and genuinely illuminating for general readers about how attachment patterns organize relational conflict and repair.

Wallin, D. J. (2007). Attachment in Psychotherapy. Guilford Press. An accessible account of how attachment theory translates into clinical practice — what the therapist's role is as a secure base, how different attachment styles present in therapy, and how the therapeutic relationship provides the corrective relational experience that supports earned security. Well-written and practically useful for both practitioners and thoughtful general readers.

Accessible General Reading

★ Levine, A., & Heller, R. (2010). Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find — and Keep — Love. Tarcher/Penguin. The best popular account of adult attachment theory — accurate, accessible, and practically focused. Covers the three main adult styles (secure, anxious, avoidant), how they interact in relationships, and what to do about common relational patterns. Widely read and generally faithful to the research. A good starting point for general readers.

Johnson, S. M. (2008). Hold Me Tight: Seven Conversations for a Lifetime of Love. Little, Brown. Sue Johnson's popular account of Emotionally Focused Therapy for couples — essentially, an attachment-theory-informed guide to relationship repair. Written for a general audience, based on EFT research and practice. Readable, warm, and practically actionable. Most useful for couples experiencing the cycles that attachment insecurity produces.

For the Academically Inclined

Cassidy, J., & Shaver, P. R. (Eds.). (2016). Handbook of Attachment: Theory, Research, and Clinical Applications (3rd ed.). Guilford Press. The definitive reference work in attachment research — comprehensive, authoritative, and covering every major theoretical and empirical development in the field. Not for casual reading, but essential for serious students. The 2016 third edition incorporates decades of subsequent research and theoretical development.

Sroufe, L. A., Egeland, B., Carlson, E. A., & Collins, W. A. (2005). The Development of the Person: The Minnesota Study of Risk and Adaptation from Birth to Adulthood. Guilford Press. The full account of the Minnesota Longitudinal Study — one of the most important studies of attachment from infancy through early adulthood. Follows individuals from poverty-level families from birth, documenting the continuities and discontinuities in attachment across development. Empirically rich and clinically important.