In a remarkable study conducted for the World Health Organization (WHO), Bowlby ( 1)provided substantial arguments supporting his view. Attachment is therefore a вЂњprimary motivational systemвЂќ with its own workings. Based on numerous empirical observations he developed a different theory: the infantвЂ™s hunger for its motherвЂ™s love and presence is as great as its hunger for food. In this theoretical view, attachment refers to a вЂњsecondary motivational system.вЂќ The British pediatrician, child psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst John Bowlby (1907вЂ“1990) strongly opposed this theoretical approach. Early adverse and traumatic experiences or major emotional neglect may lead to different levels of security versus insecurity or disorientation-disorganization of the attachment pattern that corresponds to characteristic features of neurobiological regulation.Д®arly representatives of psychoanalysis argued that the roots of human social motivation are primarily physical and sensory (hunger, sexuality) and that satisfaction and/or frustration of these needs lead to the infantвЂ™s initial approach to the mother. As an unconsciously active matrix for future personal relationships it has a particular impact on the comprehensive psychological functions of empathy and mentalization. Finally, the attachment pattern established forms an enduring, relational context for later affective, cognitive, and social development of the child. Psychosocial learning, in close interaction with genetics and epigenetics, also develops a decisive foundation for further brain development of the infant. Within individual development it indicates a primary motivational system that guides the initial transactions between mother and baby and furthermore mediates affective attunement and regulation. Attachment refers to a psychobiological principle that is deeply rooted in evolutionary development it is thought to contribute a major advantage in the survival of the social group.

Mother with child gazing at hand mirror