The anthropologist Sarah B. Hrdy provides ample evidence from mammalian and human studies that “Maintaining maternal commitment was once as important for an infant’s survival as oxygen – an often still is”(Hrdy, 1999, p. 379). The infant has no choice but to develop an attachment to the person who cares for him most of the time. The infant is born with the “expectation” that a stronger and wiser, caring person ensure his survival and socialization. Separation and loss of the attachment figure gives rise to fear and anger from the earliest months on. Still today, institutionalized children unprotected by their parents are at risk of being abused in various ways.

However, children cannot choose their mother, father, or caregiver, who have developed their own personality, mental health and experienced their own attachment relationships. As weak und unwise children, they need to and are motivated to preserve their attachment relationships.They will adapt to their primary caregiver’s personality, her wishes, desires, projections, etc. in order to ensure a continuing source of protection and care, however distorted that care may be.“The child will keep this goal in mind even at the expense of her own development, her cognition, her own feelings and her (better) knowledge.” (Slade, 2004, p. 271). Clinical studies demonstrated the struggle of children to adapt to distorted caregiving such as hostile, neglecting or sexually abusive parenting. This is one aspect of the added value of attachment theory and research for clinical work.

Another aspect of the added value are the research findings, how secure, avoidant, enmeshed, or disorganized patterns of attachment influence the quality of relationships. They influence social perception, the willingness to accept help, the effectiveness of help, and the clarity and truthfulness of communication. Such knowledge opens a window to the client’s expectations and predictions regarding the therapeutic relationship. Attachment research has provided methods of assessing children’s patterns of attachment and adults’ (parent’s) state of mind with respect to attachment including successful or unsuccessful resolution of early or later relationship trauma. Their essence has b een applied successfully in clinical work.