Attachment And Bonding: A New Synthesis

Attachment and bonding are evolved processes; the mechanisms that permit thedevelopment of selective social bonds are assumed to be very ancient, based on neural circuitryrooted deep in mammalian evolution, but the nature and timing of these processes and their ultimateand proximate causes are only beginning to be understood. In this Dahlem Workshop Report, scientistsfrom different disciplines--including anthropology, psychology, psychiatry, and behavioralbiology--come together to explore the concepts of attachment and bonding from diverse perspectives.In their studies they seek to understand the causes or the consequences of attachment and bonding ingeneral and their different qualities in individual development in particular. They address suchquestions as biobehavioral processes in attachment and bonding; early social attachment and itsinfluences on later patterns of behavior; bonding later in life; and adaptive and maladaptive (orpathological) outcomes. The studies confirm that social bonds have consequences for virtually allaspects of behavior and may be protective in the face of both physical and emotionalchallenges.

Stephen W. Porges is Professor of Psychiatry, and Codirector of the Brain Body Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago.