Heider Keller’s critique of attachment theory (in the 'Culture and attachment types' article) is well made and poses some serious challenges to attachment theory’s founders John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. So, the question becomes: is it time to throw out attachment theory altogether? Keller herself has not made such a suggestion. However, if attachment theory is deeply flawed and only relevant to around 5% of the global population, then surely throwing attachment theory out is the logical conclusion? I would suggest that there are several reasons not to do this.
The first reason is that modern attachment researchers are not naïve about the limitations of classical attachment theory and research methods, nor do they ignore cultural variations in attachment or the importance of relational networks.
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