Infants whose caregivers were too stressed, for whatever reason, to give them the necessary attunement contact will grow up with a chronic tendency to feel alone with their emotions, to have a sense—rightly or wrongly—that no one can share how they feel, that no one can “understand.”

Attunement is the quintessential component of a larger process, called attachment.7 Attachment is simply our need to be close to somebody.

In human beings, attachment is a driving force of behavior for longer than in any other animal.

— Scattered Minds by Gabor Maté (Page 72)