The analysis discusses mental representations of child attachment in infancy and middle childhood, adult attachment, and parental caregiving in view of the adaptational deficits that research has revealed to be associated with attachment insecurity. A reconceptualization of the relationship between insecurity and child abuse is described, highlighting disorganized attachment. This representational framework raises three questions: (1) how attachment theory can be integrated with other forms of cognitive-based intervention, (2) how the attachment classification can provide a useful tool for measuring progress or change in intervention, and (3) the role of the caregiving system in relation to child abuse intervention. The view described suggests considering parental behavior as an organized, integrated system that functions to provide protection for the child and making crisis intervention directed toward the caregiving system an important place to begin. 61 references (Author abstract modified)