Attachment and Borderline Personality Disorder (original) (raw)
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Attachment in Children Gökçen İLHAN ILDIZ & Emine AHMETOĞLU INTRODUCTION Attachment is an emotional process necessary for survival of a child and is synonymous with the child's search for an emotional tie to a caregiver (Hazan & Shaver, 1994). Emphasizing on the importance of attachment, Bowlby defines is as "the meaningful, private and long-lasting emotional tie between two people". Bowlby (1973) suggests that inclination to and necessity of forming attachment is necessary for survival of newborns and the functional attachment system from the developmental perspective. The most apparent behavior of a child is "the effort to attach". The baby strives to cling to the mother (Güneş, 2014). The baby needs to be attached to the mother and avoids exclusion (Scharff, 1995). "The baby thinks that mother is his/her continuation, wants to see her anytime. In her absence, he/she gets worried, begins to cry and feels alone" (Güneş, 2014). "Need for attachment is apparent in both human beings and primates and can be defined as a bio-social process to protect the newborn baby from external threats, therefore the need for forming close relationships with other human beings is a fundamental aspect of human nature" (Bowlby, 1980). First, Freud (1960) suggested that an infant's emotional attachment to mother formed the basis of his/her future relationships. Contemporary researchers recognized the importance of parent-infant attachment but suggested that following development is influenced not only by early attachment experience but also ongoing quality of parentchild attachment (Berk, 2013). It is known that insecure attachment to the caregiver may cause emotional and behavioral problems in later stages of life (Perry, 2001). To summarize, attachment includes several key roles. Therefore; 1) attachment enables long-lasting emotional ties with special ones, 2) this relationship provides security, comfort and satisfaction, 3) loss or the risk of losing the special one causes extreme suffering" (Perry, 2001). Basic Functions of Attachment Bowlby (1980) suggests the existence of an attachment system designed to safeguard the intimacy between infant and caregiver under threatening circumstances. As infants need care and protection for a long time, they are born with a desire to be close to attachment figures and a series of behaviors to keep this intimacy. The system that strengthens attachment behavior works with the basic objective of providing security and protection. Therefore, when a threat to security is perceived the system works automatically and keeps active through whole life (Shaver&Mikulincer, 2002). Attachment behavior develops persistently and is sustained strongly through whole
The Psychobiological Theory of Attachment
Physical & Occupational Therapy in Pediatrics, 2005
Psychobiological Attachment Theory (PAT) (Kraemer, 1992) provides a way of thinking about caregiver-infant relationships for use in clinical practice. This manuscript describes how the theory translates into a frame of reference that can be used in practice within the context of natural environments. A discussion of the theoretical base, function/dysfunction criteria, postulates regarding change, and presentation of an evaluation guide, provides a practical tool for use in early intervention practice.
The psychobiology of early attachment
Clinical Neuroscience Research, 2005
New laboratory research has begun to reveal a network of simple behavioral, physiological and neural processes that underlie the psychological constructs of attachment theory. It has become apparent that the unique features of early infant attachment reflect certain unique features of early infant sensory and motor integration, early learning, communication, motivation and the regulation of biobehavioral systems by the mother-infant interaction. This chapter will undertake to answer three major questions that have remained unsettled in our understanding of early human attachment: How does the infant find its own mother and stay close to her? Why does separation of the infant from its mother produce such severe physiologic and behavioral responses? How can individual differences in adult offspring and especially in their maternal behavior toward their own infants be related to the patterns of early life with their parents? In each of these cases, I will review the recent research that has given us new answers to these questions at the level of early behavioral, affective and cognitive processes and their neurobiological substrates. Attachment remains useful as a concept, like hunger, that describes the operation of subprocesses that work together within the frame of a vital biological function.
Beyond insecurity: A reconceptualization of attachment disorders of infancy
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1996
Some young children are not merely insecurely attached and at risk for later problems; by virtue of the severity of their attachment disturbances they are already disordered. This article reviews and critiques the approaches of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) and the International Classification of Diseases (10th ed.; ICD-10; World Health Organization, 1992) to attachment disorders and finds that they have not made use of findings from developmental research on attachment in developing their criteria. An alternative system of classifying attachment disorders that is compatible with the major findings from developmental research on infant-caregiver attachment is presented. Finally, many areas in need of empirical contributions are indicated.
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1996
Some young children are not merely insecurely attached and at risk for later problems; by virtue of the severity of their attachment disturbances they are already disordered. This article reviews and critiques the approaches of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) and the International Classification of Diseases (10th ed.; ICD-10; World Health Organization, 1992) to attachment disorders and finds that they have not made use of findings from developmental research on attachment in developing their criteria. An alternative system of classifying attachment disorders that is compatible with the major findings from developmental research on infant-caregiver attachment is presented. Finally, many areas in need of empirical contributions are indicated. Ethological attachment theory, as outlined by John Bowlby (Bowlby, 1969, 1973, 1980), has provided one of the most important frameworks for understanding crucial risk and protective factors in social and emotional development in the first 3 years of life. Bowlby's (1951) monograph, Maternal Care and Mental Health, reviewed the world literature on maternal deprivation and suggested that emotionally available caregiving was crucial for infant development and mental health. Developmental attachment research, which has formally evaluated Bowlby's major premises, has demonstrated convincingly that insecure attachment in infancy is associated with subsequent psychosocial maladaptation in preschool and middle
The Development of Early Attachment Behaviours
Early Development and Parenting, 1996
The normative development of attachment behaviours and the changing relationship between the level of activation of the attachment system and the intensity of subsequent attachment behaviours were studied longitudinally from 3 to 12 months of age. The study was based on Bowlby's notion about increasing goal directedness of the attachment system. The sample coneisfed of two groups of children, 33 children born with cleft lip and palate and 34 childrpn without this congenital anomaly. To circumvent the age-limited applicability of the Strange Sitmation procedure, a new observational instrument was developed, the socalled Induced S h s s at Home procedure. It appeared that the ISH procedure is a valid alternative to induce and measwe the attachment behaviours proximity seeking, contact maintenance and avoidance. Using the multilevel model for longitudinal data, it was shown that attachment behaviours are not very stable across age. An elaborated model revealed that the relationship between activation of the attachment system and subsequent contact maintenance and resistant behaviour become less stmng with age. No differences between childrpn with and without cleft lip and palate were found.
Informes Psicológicos, 2013
Attachment is one of the most important theories that has ever been produced in the field of Psychology. It explains not only the relationship that a child has with its mother, but also how a child is structured and developed into a psychic being. Understanding the Attachment Theory helps elucidate how the interactions that take place in the parent-infant relationship impact the rest of the child’s life by predicting the its neural, emotional, and social development. For this reason, it is important to explain the foundation of this important relationship. This article reviews some of the literature that, based on research from the fields of psychology, biology, and genetics, shows evidence on how this special tie is founded on genetic and endocrine substrates that, in interaction with the environment, function to create the expression of an individual.