(Sixth in a series)

At this point in our conversation, the topic turned to the politically difficult climate right now surrounding attachment therapy, attachment therapists, and therapeutic parenting. I mentioned some of the difficulties faced by the Attachment Disorder Network as we attempted to serve families with emotionally disturbed children. In the course of this conversation, the ATTACh organization was mentioned, and this was Foster’s perspective:

ATTACh was started down in Florida and they didn’t have any money to start it with, and after that first meeting, it probably would have folded except that I gave a thousand or fifteen hundred dollars to the cause, so I sort of gave it the seed money that started the ATTACh organization.


My philosophy is that we’re all going to make mistakes in life, the question is whether or not we go through life each moment that we live, trying to do good… Certainly good intentions can cause problems.


I have mixed feelings. I realize that I am looked at askance, and probably old-fashioned and out of date by the young attachment therapists now—if I am remembered at all or if anyone even knows me anymore for anything other than the non-controversial Love and Logic philosophy and writing. But at the same time I feel generally comfortable that we did what we needed to do in a way to reach extremely disturbed people and that we were successful in doing it. That’s sort of my feeling now. Whether I am looked at askance or forgotten, in the life long course of events, really isn’t important at all.


The way I’ve handled the controversy is just to say, if something is true, and it’s good, it will always be rediscovered over and over and over again. Sort of like electroshock which is very, very helpful to some severely depressed people. And then it goes through all the negations, where folks scream, "It is no good, it's awful and barbaric!", and then later, someone comes along and “rediscovers” it—Oh wow, this really IS helpful after all! So my tendency is not to fight…to just say, people will eventually get it. You know, they don’t get it now, but there will be a time, sometime, down the line, when people will get it. And that is the way I have handled it.

I asked Foster if he had read the recent APSAC report regarding attachment therapy. Foster replied that he hasn’t read it… and doesn’t want to. He further clarified his position when he stated:

If I get involved in that kind of stuff, it irritates me! So I don’t even read it! I don’t go to the ATTACh site, I don’t read it, I just don’t get involved with it because it doesn’t help me relax and enjoy life. It doesn’t make me feel better and there’s not a lot I can do about it—at my age, if a path doesn't add to the quality of life, one ought to consider not taking the path.