The authors provide a context for this special section by arguing that the attachment relationships of infancy fulfil an evolutionary role in ensuring that the brain structures that come to subserve social cognition are appropriately organised and prepared to equip the individual for the collaborative existence with other people for which his or her brain was designed. Processes as fundamental as gene expression or changes in receptor densities can be seen as direct functions of the extent of

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... derstanding of mental states provided by the caregiving environment. If the attachment relationship is indeed a major organiser of brain development, it is even more important to understand the processes that underpin the transgenerational transmission of attachment patterns. The contributions of the papers in the special section to understanding the role of reflective function in the development of attachment and social cognition are reviewed, and the implications for the development of both theory and practice are explored. Background The collection of papers in this special section represents a significant advance in our understanding of the transgenerational transmission of attachment -an issue that itself lies at the heart of the question of the social inheritance of mental disorder and personality. As our understanding of the interface of brain development and early psycho-social experience increases, we see the role of the attachment relationship as far more than being there to protect the human infant. It also fulfils an evolutionary role in ensuring that the brain structures that come to subserve social cognition are appropriately organized and prepared to equip the individual for the collaborative existence with conspecifics for which his or her brain was designed (Fonagy, 2003) . Alan Sroufe (1996) and Myron Hofer (2004) were perhaps the key instigators in extending attachment theory from one primarily concerned with the developmental emergence of a complex set of social expectancies to a far