There has been increasing evidence to suggest that the root cause of much mental illness lies in a sub-optimal capacity for affect regulation. Cognition and emotion are intricately linked and cognitive deficits, which are characteristic of many psychiatric conditions, are often driven by affect dysregulation, which itself can usually be traced back to sub-optimal childhood development as supported by Attachment Theory. Individuals with insecure attachment types in their childhoods are prone to a variety of mental illness, whereas a secure attachment type in childhood provides a secure base in life. We therefore propose a holistic approach to tackle chronic anxiety and depression, typical of Axis II clinical disorders, which is informed by the development of the infant brain in social interaction with its primary care-givers. We formulate, in a self-administrable way, the protocols governing the interaction of a securely attached child with its primary care-givers that produce the capacity for affect regulation in the child. We posit that these protocols construct, by neuroplasticity and long term potentiation, new optimal neural pathways in the brains of adults with insecure childhood attachment that suffer from mental disorder. This procedure is called self-attachment and aims to help the individuals to create their own attachment objects in the form of their adult self looking after their inner child
