n.

1. The act of attaching or the condition of being attached.
2. Something, such as a tie, band, or fastener, that attaches one thing to another.
3. A bond, as of affection or loyalty; fond regard.
4. 1. A supplementary part; an accessory: bought a vacuum cleaner with several attachments. See synonyms at appendage.
   2. A supplementary document that is attached to a primary document: stapled two attachments to the memorandum.
5. Law.
   1. Legal seizure of property or a person.
   2. The writ ordering such a seizure.

To link a file to an e-mail message so that they travel to their destination together. Any type of file can be attached; for example, a database, spreadsheet, graphics or program file. Even a text file that might elaborate more on the message being sent can be attached. See how to transfer a file over the Internet.

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A legal term referring to the action of seizing property in anticipation of a favorable ruling for a plaintiff who claims to be owed money by the defendant.

Investopedia Says:
This is a preliminary procedure, meaning that property is seized before a final ruling is delivered. The seizure may prove unwarranted if the court rules in favor of the defendant.

Often real estate, vehicles and bank accounts are seized under these circumstances. A judge will seize such property when there is a good chance that the plaintiff will win the case and a high probability that the defendant will flee and not pay a court ordered settlement. However, if the attachment proves to have been unnecessary, the court must pay the defendant a bond to cover any damages the seizure caused.

1. writ authorizing seizure of property after a court approved judgment in favor of a creditor. After the court adjudicates its claim, the creditor must obtain a property execution authorizing garnishment of wages or seizure of personal assets, such as bank accounts, in a jurisdiction where the borrower resides, usually a municipality or county.

2. Creditor's lien, which is said to attach to the borrower's assets in exchange for a loan or advance against a line of credit. See also Security Interest.

Legal seizure of property to force payment of a debt.
Example: The landlord obtained an attachment that created a Lien on the tenant's property to enforce payment of back rent.

noun

1. The condition of being closely tied to another by affection or faith: affection, devotion, fondness, liking, love, loyalty (used in plural). See connect.
2. A subordinate element added to another entity: accessory, adjunct, appendage, appurtenance, supplement. See increase/decrease.

n

Definition: addition
Antonyms: detachment, estrangement

n

Definition: affection, high regard
Antonyms: alienation, animosity, aversion, dislike, divorce, enmity, estrangement, hate, hatred, opposition

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n

1. fastener, connector, associated part. n 2. a mechanical device for retention and stabilization of a dental prosthesis.

The term attachment is used in contemporary scientific literature in four distinct senses: a form of behavior whose goal is to maintain proximity to the other person (smiles, vocalization, tears, approach behavior); the bonds of attachment that are related to the affiliation between parents and children; the system of attachment, in which the child's goal is to seek proximity with the attachment figure and obtain an internal feeling of security; and, finally, relationships that involve the offer of attention, emotional availability, and the search for comfort in parent-child relations.

Attachment is a behavioral control system of biological origin, which involves the use of the attachment figure by the child as a "secure base" from which it can explore the environment. In John Bowlby's theory, the form assumed by the child's attachment is based on its actual interactive experiences with its attachment figures and not with the fantasies they arouse. These feelings of security or insecurity (anxious attachment, resistant attachment, avoidance attachment, disorganized attachment) about the parental figures are organized during the first year of life in the form of an "internal model of work" that will give rise to stable forms of reaction in the face of distress and novelty.

From the start of the twentieth century, the medical literature was cognizant of the effects of the lack of maternal care of infants (Chapin, 1916; Spitz, R., 1945). In 1951 Bowlby wrote a monograph on maternal care and mental health. In 1959 Harlow, working with primates, provided experimental proof of the independence of attachment and the satisfaction of physiological needs. This led Bowlby to propose, in 1969, the concept of "attachment behavior" and to emphasize its importance for normal development. Bowlby's student Mary Ainsworth proposed the experimental paradigm of the "strange situation," which could be used, in the laboratory or at home, to study the reactions of infants over a year old to the presence of a stranger, followed by a short separation and reunion. It was used to classify attachment behavior with either of the parents into types: secure attachment (type B) against various insecure attachments (anxious-avoidant, or type A; anxious-resistant, or type C; and disorganized, or type D). The work of Mary Main focused on describing parents' speech about their children and in classifying it into coherent, avoidant, involved, or disorganized types. Longitudinal studies show a clear correlation between the speech category of the parent most directly involved with the child and the type of attachment formed by the child. The relation appears clearly during experiences of absence and abuse and the phenomenon of disorganized attachment.

Attachment is not a psychoanalytic concept; it is part of ethology. However, the concept was developed and applied within the context of psychopathology and the study of infant development by a psychoanalyst, a leading member of the British Society of Psychoanalysis, who had been responsible for training for many years. To the great regret of its inventor, the concept of attachment, although it underwent considerable development in the field of developmental research, was not extensively used in clinical practice, at least, not until recently. Of course, the concept of attachment clashes with the classical theory of anaclisis. It is also true that from the point of view of attachment theory, infantile sexuality is of little importance and the emphasis is on the real and repeated experiences of early childhood. However, contemporary psychoanalysts would be wrong to neglect this essential dimension of human relations, important because of its development in the first year of life, the formation of the different styles of attachment described by Main and observable after the first year of infancy in Ainsworth's "strange situation," as well as the persistence of attachment in adolescent and adult life. Attachment theory clarifies the development of early parent-infant relations and the modes of organizing representations.

Finally, there is remarkable convergence between the concept of attachment and psychoanalytic theory in the work of John Bowlby and Mary Main on the transgenerational transmission of styles of attachment through the consistency of parents' speech concerning their own infancy. Starting from the "secure base" represented by the analyst, the patient can explore the disturbances in his earliest relationships and eliminate their continuation in his interpersonal relations and their transmission to his own children through the expression, in narrative form, of his emotional experience, which is re-expressed in the transference. The concept of attachment assumes its place in psychopathology as a tool for analyzing early development and exploring its structure in the psychoanalytic experience.

Bibliography

Ainsworth, Mary; Blehar M.C.; Waters E.; et al. (1978), Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation, Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Bowlby, John. (1969). Attachment and loss (Vol. 1). London: Hogarth Press.

——. (1988). A secure base: Clinical applications of attachment theory. London: Routledge.

Holmes, J. (1993). John Bowlby and attachment theory. London: Routledge.

Main, Mary, Kaplan, N., Cassidy, Jude. (1985). Security in infancy, childhood and adulthood: A move to the level of representation. Monographs of Society for Research in Child Development, 50 (1-2), 66-104.

Spitz, René. (1945). In R. S. Eissler, (Ed.), The psychoanalytic study of the child (Vol. I). New York: International Universities Press.

Chapin, H.D. (1916). A scheme of state control for dependent infants. Medical Record, 84, 1081-1084.

—ANTOINE GUÉDENEY

This entry contains information applicable to United States law only.

The legal process of seizing property to ensure satisfaction of a judg- ment.

The document by which a court orders such a seizure may be called a writ of attachment or an order of attachment.

Originally, the main purpose of attachment was to coerce a defendant into appearing in court and answering the plaintiff's claim. The court's order pressured the sheriff to take the defendant's property into custody, depriving the individual of the right to use or sell it. If the defendant obstinately refused to appear, the property could be sold by the court to pay off any monetary judgment entered against him or her. Today, the process of attachment has two functions, as a jurisdictional predicate and as a provisional remedy.

Attachment of property within reach of the court's jurisdiction gives the court authority over the defendant to the extent of that property's value even if the court cannot reach the defendant personally. For example, a court must have some connection with the defendant in order to require that person to appear and defend himself or herself in an action before that court.

A variety of different facts are sufficient to give the court jurisdiction over the defendant's person; for example, the defendant's residence within the state, the defendant's commission of a wrongful act within the state, or the defendant's doing business within the state.

If none of these kinds of facts exist to give the court jurisdiction over the defendant's person, the court may nevertheless assert its authority over property that the defendant owns within the state. In such a case, the plaintiff cannot recover a monetary judgment for an amount larger than the value of the property nor can the individual reach the defendant's property outside the state, but this sort of jurisdiction, called jurisdiction in rem or quasi in rem, may be the best the plaintiff can get. Before the court can exercise jurisdiction over the property, the plaintiff must obtain a writ of attachment to bring it into custody of the court.

Attachment may also be a provisional remedy, that is, relief that temporarily offers the plaintiff some security while pursuing a final judgment in the lawsuit. For example, a plaintiff who has good reason to believe that the person he or she is suing is about to pack up and leave the state will want the court to prevent this until the plaintiff has a chance to win the action and collect on the judgment. The plaintiff can apply for an order of attachment that brings the property into the custody of the court and takes away the defendant's right to remove it or dispose of it.

Attachment is considered a very harsh remedy because it substantially interferes with the defendant's property rights before final resolution of the overall dispute. For this reason, there have been a number of challenges to the attachment procedures in different states, and the Supreme Court has established standards that are the least that due process requires. For example, for centuries attachment of a defendant's property was granted ex parte, that is, without first allowing the defendant to argue against it. The theory was that any defendant was likely to leave the state if he or she knew beforehand that his or her property was about to be attached. This collides with the individual's right to be free of interference with his or her rights unless the individual is given notice and an opportunity to be heard in the matter. States, therefore, now generally provide that notice must be given to the defendant before the seizure of property whenever practical, and the defendant must be given a hearing promptly after the seizure. Furthermore, a court cannot sanction a seizure that is made without a court order of attachment. To obtain the order, the plaintiff must swear to a set of facts that justify such a drastic interference with the defendant's property.

The process of attachment varies in detail from state to state, but it is not overly complicated. The plaintiff submits an application to the court describing the cause of action against the defendant and the grounds for seeking an attachment. The plaintiff may have to include documents or other evidence to support the claim that he or she will probably win the lawsuit, and the individual usually is required to make the application under oath. States generally require that the plaintiff post a bond or undertaking in an amount sufficient to secure payment of damages to the defendant if it turns out that the plaintiff was not in fact entitled to the attachment.

The court issues a writ of attachment directing the sheriff or other law enforcement officer to serve a copy of the order on the defendant and to seize property equal in value to the sum specified in the writ. This is called a levy of attachment. The defendant then has a right to challenge the seizure or to post bond for the release of the property, in effect substituting the bond for the property in the court's custody. The order of attachment is effective only for a limited period, the time necessary to wind up the lawsuit between plaintiff and defendant or a specified period intended to permit resolution of the controversy. Provisions are usually made for special circumstances or extreme hardship.

Not every kind of property owned by the defendant is subject to attachment. The laws of a state may provide exemptions for certain household items, clothing, tools, and other essentials. The defendant's salary may be subject to attachment, but a certain amount is exempt in order to allow for personal support or for family support. Property belonging to the defendant but in the hands of someone else, such as salary owed or a debt not yet paid, may also be seized, but this procedure is usually called garnishment rather than attachment.

Courts always have the discretion to exempt more property than that specified in a statute or to deny the attachment altogether under the proper circumstances. This may be done, for example, when the court believes that the property sought to be attached is worth much more than any judgment the plaintiff could hope to win, or where the property is an ongoing business that would be destroyed by attachment.

1. state of being attached.
2. a connection which achieves attachment.

• a. plaque — an electron-dense coating of cell membranes in which intermediate filaments are embedded participating in the mechanism of holding cells together.

See attach.

IN BRIEF: The act of fastening. A strong emotional bond.

Jim formed a great attachment with his new puppy.

Quotes:

"Those who consciousness is unified abandon all attachment to the results of action and attain supreme peace. But those whose desires are fragmented, who are selfishly attached to the results of their work, are bound in everything they do." - Bhagavad Gita

"Softly and kindly remind yourself, I cannot own anything. It is a valuable thought to keep in mind as you struggle to improve your financial picture, worry about investments, and plan how to acquire more and more. It is a universal principle which you are part of. You must release everything when you truly awaken. Are you letting your life go by in frustration and worry over not having enough? If so, relax and remember that you only get what you have for a short period of time. When you awaken you will see the folly of being attached to anything." - Wayne Dyer

"By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try. The world is beyond the winning." - Lao-Tzu

"Attachment to spiritual things is.. just as much an attachment as inordinate love of anything else." - Thomas Merton

"The tighter you squeeze, the less you have." - Zen Saying

"Attachment is the great fabricator of illusions; reality can be attained only by someone who is detached." - Simone Weil

See more famous quotes about Attachment

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - tilslutning, fastgøring, tilknytning

Nederlands (Dutch)
aanhangsel, toe-/ bijvoegsel, detachering, appendix, meegestuurd bestand (email), gehechtheid, beslaglegging, hulpstuk

Français (French)
n. - attache, lien, collier, embout de jonction, additif, affection, fixation, accessoire, (fig) attachement, (Jur) arrestation, saisie, stage

Deutsch (German)
n. - Befestigung, Zusatz, Anhänglichkeit, Verhaftung, Beschlagnahmung, Zubehör

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - δεσμός (αγάπης ή αφοσίωσης), συναισθηματικός δεσμός, σύνδεσμος, συνημμένο (έγγραφο), προσάρτημα, επισύναψη, στοργή, φιλοστοργία, αγάπη, αδυναμία, (νομ.) κατάσχεση

Italiano (Italian)
allegato, affetto, arresto, sequestro, raccordo

Português (Portuguese)
n. - fixação (f), embargo (m), anexo (m), atração (f), simpatia (f), arresto (m)

Русский (Russian)
присоединение, прикрепление, преданность, привязанность, арест, конфискация, аксессуары

Español (Spanish)
n. - apéndice, acoplamiento, fijación, apego, cariño, afecto, detención, arresto, embargo, accesorio, utensilio auxiliar

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - fastsättning, fäste, tillsats

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
连接, 附着, 安装, 附属物

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 連接, 附著, 安裝, 附屬物

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 부착 , 애정

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 取付け, 付着物, 付属物, 連結装置, 差し押え, 差押令状, 傾倒, 愛着, 取り付け, 差し押さえ

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) ربط, ارتباط, الحاق, اداه ملحقه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮סיפוח, אביזר שהוצמד למכונה, עיקול, משיכה, שעבוד, מסירות, התקשרות, חיבה, אמצעי הצמדה, עבודה זמנית‬

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Dip Attachment	Troy-bilt Hedge Attachment
Angle Attachment Drill Right	Rhinotip Irrigation Attachment