attachment

Handbook of Attachment, Second Edition: Theory, Research, and Clinical Applications
$125.00
I struggled with buying this book versus using the funds for a conference. I'm so glad I chose the book purchase. I have referred to it repeatedly when planning class lectures, while searching for the latest research for training curricula, or for enriching my knowledge of a theory or concept. It's large, unwieldy, expensive, and worth all the trouble!

Building the Bonds of Attachment: Awakening Love in Deeply Troubled Children
$43.95
I'm not one to promote books usually, and I've never written an online book review, but Bonds of Attachment by Daniel Hughes is a well-written, tearjerking, rooting for the character book to promote :) It's a MUST READ for:
**Mental health professionals
**Child and family therapists
**Social workers working with foster children
**Teachers
**Day care workers
**Parents with children who have difficulty connecting
**Parents who have children with "behavior problems"
**Adults who have an abuse/neglect childhood history
and just about anyone else.
This book has been a huge influence on me, both personally and professionally. I can't brag about it enough. It's a case history of a little girl in Maine. The story covers some of her parents background,but mostly it focuses on the journey of a little girl named Katie. Details are written about her experience as well as her case worker, therapist(s), and foster families. It's educational, insightful, emotional, and helpful. I didn't want the book to end. I'm hooked on Daniel Hughes' work. A+++

Attachment: Second Edition (Attachment and Loss Series, Vol 1)
$27.00
This first volume of John Bowlby's trilogy on Attachment and Loss expands and builds upon an article he published in 1958 in the International Journal of Psycho-Analysis titled "The Nature of the Child's Tie to His Mother", which is perhaps a more telling title than that of the book itself. Attachment, as a technical term in behavioural biology, is first used in describing instinctive mother-following behaviours of young mammals and birds (first observed and reported in delightful accounts by the Austrian ethologist Konrad Lorenz in the 1930's).

By comparing data collected during and after the Second World War by childcare workers and researchers in U.K. and North America, Bowlby found a striking common pattern of distressed behaviours among young children between the ages of one and three when separated from mother for an extended period: first in Protest, then Despair and finally Detachment - a psychopathological state when a child becomes socially uninitiated and withdrawn, even to his returning mother. Bowlby then postulates that physical proximity to a mother-figure is essential to a child's development of cognitive capacities, especially during a sensitive period around six months to two years after birth. Attachment behaviours, like those of young mammals and birds, are present in the human baby too. This has since led to a blossoming of research activities in development psychology and psychoanalysis, as well as neurophysiology recently, which supplies much fresh evidence about the young brain and its phenomenal maturing in the first two years. Attachment theory has since contributed significantly to understanding of our own selves, informed the age-old philosophical debate on nature or nurture, and brought our attention to fundamental issues in child-rearing such as sensitive periods of development, the difference between attachment (conducive to security) and dependence (symptomatic of insecurity), the distinction between anxiety from separation and fear of the unfamiliar, etc.

This new edition is a timely reprint of a classic account of attachment theory as formulated by the originator. While primarily an academic work, with a few chapters deemed more for an academic jury (about Freud and instinctive behaviours, etc.), it is mostly very readable, and certainly captivating to those with access to young babies, of whose behaviours are given an enlightening perspective. This volume focuses on attachment, with subsequent volumes on its loss in temporary and permanent terms respectively.

Attachment-Focused Parenting: Effective Strategies to Care for Children (Norton Professional Books)
$29.95
I wish, I wish, I wish I had read this book and heard Dr. Hughes speak before my explosive, difficult-to-parent foster son moved in. And then, reread the book again every three to six month months after that.

Fortunately, we have managed to make a lot of progress in spite of my mishandling of many situations, but how much sorrow and anguish we could have saved for both my son and myself had I understood what was going on.

For me, the book is a perfect blend of theory and example, but I do think Dr. Hughes (or someone) might consider writing some of this advice in the format of Boy's Town Foster Parent book, which is so helpful because it just tells the parent: do this. Sometimes, when the chaos is at its most intense, I need to be told what to do (kind of like my son!)

For those of you who are foster parenting and want to be reminded of what a difficult, demanding job you are doing, how important your role in the life of the child is, and that there is hope to create a loving, joyful relationshiop -- read Dr. Hughes book, and, if you can, attend a workshop. My hope, energy and commitment have been renewed. Thanks Dr. Hughes.