Attachment theory and research: Resurrection of the psychodynamic approach to personality (original) (raw)
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Attachment Theory and Research: Implications for Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Research, 2011
Though attachment research today is best conceptualized as integrationist and multidisciplinary, it is important to remember that attachment theory was born out of clinical process. Bowlby [ 1-3 ] was fi rst and foremost a psychoanalyst, and he drew from clinical experiences with children and adults to conceptualize his theory. Many of his ideas developed in response to dissatisfaction with the prevailing perspectives of the time. Though Melanie Klein, his supervisor at the time, was quite infl uential in his thinking about object relations, her conceptualization of development focused almost exclusively on internal confl ict rather than external events in the child's family and environment . Contrary to Klein's perspective, during the analysis of a 3-year-old boy, Bowlby observed direct links between disturbances in the mother and pathology in the child. Such experiences in analytic treatment formed the basis for his assertion that early attachment diffi culties increase vulnerability to later psychopathology.
The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 2006
The author examines Bowlby's attachment theory and more recent versions of it from an epistemological viewpoint and subjects it to questioning on whether they are in line with central concepts of Freudian psychoanalysis. He argues that Bowlby's basic tenets regarding attachment theory, which later attachment theorists never seriously questioned, do not conform to scientifi c standards, and that psychoanalytic issues such as the dynamic unconscious, internal confl icts, interaction of drive wishes and the role of defence in establishing substitutive formations are either ignored or not treated in suffi cient depth. In the light of this, Fonagy's assertion that psychoanalytic criticism of attachment theory arose from mutual misunderstandings and ought nowadays to be seen as outdated is reversed: psychoanalytic criticism can only be regarded as outdated if either basic tenets of Freudian psychoanalysis, or attachment theory or both are misunderstood.
The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 2007
The author examines Bowlby's attachment theory and more recent versions of it from an epistemological viewpoint and subjects it to questioning on whether they are in line with central concepts of Freudian psychoanalysis. He argues that Bowlby's basic tenets regarding attachment theory, which later attachment theorists never seriously questioned, do not conform to scientifi c standards, and that psychoanalytic issues such as the dynamic unconscious, internal confl icts, interaction of drive wishes and the role of defence in establishing substitutive formations are either ignored or not treated in suffi cient depth. In the light of this, Fonagy's assertion that psychoanalytic criticism of attachment theory arose from mutual misunderstandings and ought nowadays to be seen as outdated is reversed: psychoanalytic criticism can only be regarded as outdated if either basic tenets of Freudian psychoanalysis, or attachment theory or both are misunderstood.
Criticism of Attachment Theory
Attachment theory has a complex history, both positive and negative. This paper focuses on both. ̀” An attachment is a tie based on the need for safety, security and protection. This need is paramount in infancy and childhood, when the developing individual is immature and vulnerable. The infants instinctively attach to their carers̀• , .
Drawing on concepts from ethology, cybernetics, information processing, developmental psychology, and psychoanalysts, John Bowlby formulated the basic tenets of the theory. He thereby revolutionized our thinking about a child's tie to the mother and its disruption through separation, deprivation, and bereavement. Mary Ainsworth's innovative methodology not only made it possible to test some of Bowlby's ideas empirically hut also helped expand the theory itself and is responsible for some of the new directions it is now taking. Ainsworth contributed the concept of the attachment figure as a secure base from which an infant can explore the world. In addition, she formulated the concept of maternal sensitivity to infant signals and its role in the development of infant-mother attachment patterns.
Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 2003
The Attachment Behavioral System 2 My life's work has been directed to a single aim. I have observed the more subtle disturbances of mental function in healthy and sick people and have sought to infer -or, if you prefer it, to guess --from signs of this kind how the apparatus which serves these functions is constructed and what concurrent and mutually opposing forces are at work in it. --Sigmund
The Clinical Implications of Attachment Theory
British Journal of Psychotherapy, 1994
The work of John Bowlby, although influential in developmental psychology and social psychiatry, has had relatively little impact within his parent discipline of psychoanalytic psychotherapy. The paper traces Bowlby's relationship with the British Psychoanalytic Society, contrasting his ideas with those of Klein. Drawing on recent findings in developmental psychology stimulated by Attachment Theory, it outlines the clinical relevance of the concepts of the secure base and narrative, and reviews notions of defence and the Oedipal situation from the attachment perspective. Attachment Theory is not a new`school' of psychotherapy but addresses principles which underlie all effective therapies. An extended case study is described illustrating these points.
Attachment-related psychodynamics
Attachment & Human Development, 2002
Because there has been relatively little communication and cross-fertilization between the two major lines of research on adult attachment, one based on coded narrative assessments of defensive processes, the other on simple self-reports of 'attachment style' in close relationships, we here explain and review recent work based on a combination of self-report and other kinds of method, including behavioral observations and unconscious priming techniques. The review indicates that considerable progress has been made in testing central hypotheses derived from attachment theory and in exploring unconscious, psychodynamic processes related to affect-regulation and attachment-system activation. The combination of self-report assessment of attachment style and experimental manipulation of other theoretically pertinent variables allows researchers to test causal hypotheses. We present a model of normative and individual-difference processes related to attachment and identify areas in which further research is needed and likely to be successful. One long-range goal is to create a more complete theory of personality built on attachment theory and other object relations theories.