Child psychologists working within different theoretical perspectives (except, maybe, for those working within the Piagetian framework) would agree that attachment (the establishment of infants' emotional ties to primary caregivers) is one of the important, if not the most important, neo-formations of infancy. In this respect, the neo-Vygotskian perspective is not different, for example, from Freud's (1940/1964), Erikson's (1963), and Bowlby's (1969/1982) views of the period of infancy. The neo-Vygotskians, however, have given an innovative explanation of the roots of attachment, the mechanism of its development, and the role of attachment in children's further development.

The Roots of Attachment: Alternative Perspectives

Discussing the first year of life, Vygotsky (1984/1998) emphasized infants' helplessness, their inability to satisfy vital physiological needs by themselves. Indeed, in contrast to animal offspring, human babies are born with only a few reflexes serving survival purposes, which, to make it worse, are not fully developed. For example, even a basic reflex such as sucking is so imperfect in newborn babies that they must learn how to suck. Therefore,