Attachment theory tries to explain why human beings have a tendency to seek security and emotional stability in intimate, specific and lasting interpersonal relationships. It also studies the processes that cause the ruptures of these ties to have negative consequences for mental health and social performance.

This book is divided into three parts. First, it describes the historical principles and developments of attachment theory. Secondly, it explores the relationship between attachment theory and psychoanalysis. Finally, it proposes the application of this theory to psychiatric prevention and assistance.

The chapters address topics such as the theory of attachment as a psychoanalytic paradigm; the relationship of the theory of attachment with the thought of Winicott, Klein, Kohut, Anna Freud, Mahler, Stern, Fonagy, Lacan, Bleichmar, Critteden and other authors; a theory of internalization and representation; a theory of anguish; family relationships and basic bonds of attachment; the neurophysiological and psychosomatic components of attachment; representational models; research of and with attachment; the dysfunctions of parenthood; the instruments of evaluation of the representational world of the adult; the transfer; grief; a review of the Juanito case; memory and identification; iatrogenesis in psychoanalytic psychotherapy; attachment and sexuality; trauma and dissociation; the promotion of mental health; applications of attachment theory, etc.

The text is written in a legible and clear way and may be of interest to psychoanalysts, psychologists, psychiatrists, pediatricians, social workers and all those who have a marked interest in the systematic study of attachment links and their applications to clinical diagnosis, psychotherapy, research and social promotion of mental health.

The first edition of this work (2001), which is presented revised and expanded, has revitalized studies on attachment theory, leading to the creation of study groups and the inclusion of attachment theory in various curricula of clinical training institutions on both sides of the Atlantic. Likewise, it has become the inaugural work of a series of works that the publishing house Psimática has published and is in preparation on the theory of attachment.

In this second edition the author has reviewed and updated all the chapters of the first edition, has rewritten some (The theory of attachment, psychopathology and general psychiatry) and includes some of the new nature: The relationship and The theory of attachment and neuroscience.