Simplistically put, attachment is the inborn mammalian dynamism that primarily maximises safety and protection and at its most basic physiological level increases the chances of infant survival (Siegel, 2020; McElhaney et al., 2009). Throughout development attachment is the pursuit and preservation of proximity (Neufeld & Maté, 2019) that progressively moves from physical proximity (security in infancy) to emotional proximity (intimacy in childhood) and into an embodied felt sense of proximal security and intimacy within the Self (adulthood) (McElhaney et al., 2009).
Significantly, attachment facilitates an interpersonal relationship that serves to instrumentally organise psychological, psychological, and relational processes of communicative meaning making (Siegel, 2020): attachment is the embodied and relational manner in which humans orientate and connect in times of distress and delight (Neufeld & Maté, 2019; Siegel, 2020).
