The Attachment Behavioral System In Adulthood: Activation, Psychodynamics, And Interpersonal Processes (original) (raw)
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Attachment theory and research: Resurrection of the psychodynamic approach to personality
2005
Since the rise of the social-behaviorist approach to personality and its elaboration with cognitive concepts following "the cognitive revolution," psychodynamic theories, usually identi-Wed with Sigmund Freud, have taken a beating. This makes it easy for mainstream personalitysocial psychologists to brush the psychodynamic approach aside. At the same time, researchers in both developmental and personality-social psychology have made great progress in testing and elaborating ideas presented by John Bowlby in his famous trilogy on attachment and loss. What outsiders to that perspective may not realize is that Bowlby was a psychoanalyst who saw himself as retracing Freud's steps but with the advantage of new theoretical and empirical strategies. In this article, we conceptualize attachment theory as a contemporary psychodynamic approach, show how this theory has helped to bring psychodynamic psychology back to life, and review empirical evidence from our laboratories that supports many of the psychodynamic hypotheses advanced by Bowlby.
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.
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 Social Neuroscience of Attachment
Springer, 2017
Attachment theory, developed by the British psychoanalyst John Bowlby and his American colleague Mary Ainsworth (Bowlby, Attachment and loss, 1969; Ainsworth et al., Patterns of attachment, 1978), aims at explaining why early interactions with caregivers have such a pervasive and lasting effect on personality development beyond childhood. Combining aspects of Darwinian evolutionary biology with social and personality psychology, attachment theory is built upon an inherent cross talk between disciplines. Attachment is conceptualized to rely upon both a behavioral system with a biological function and a cognitive substrate in terms of mental representations of person-environment interactions. Because of its comprehensive nature, attachment theory has become one of the most heavily researched conceptual frameworks in modern psychology (Mikulincer & Shaver, Attachment in adulthood: structure, dynamics, and change, 2007) and has recently inspired growing interest in the field of social neuroscience (Vrtička & Vuilleumier, Front Hum Neurosci 6, 212, 2012). Within the context of this book concerned with the missing link between neuroscience and social science, attachment theory offers a good practical example of a fruitful dialogue between disciplines helping to better understand human development. In the present chapter, I will first describe the fundamental assumptions of attachment theory and discuss their implications from an evolutionary as well as sociocultural perspective. I will then illustrate how attachment theory has inspired applied research in the field of social neuroscience and how the insights gained so far can inform possible prevention and intervention strategies in the context of mental and physical health and policy making across disciplines. Finally, I will comment on the remaining issues and future avenues of this still very young and exciting field of research termed “the social neuroscience of attachment.”
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 carers̕ , .
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.
New frontiers and applications of attachment theory
Frontiers in Psychology, 2015
Attachment is a deep and enduring emotional bond that connects one person to another across time and space . Bowlby considered the importance of children's relationship with their mothers in terms of their social, emotional and cognitive development. Specifically, he emphasized the importance of the link between early infant separations from their mothers and related traumatic experiences and later maladjustment. His attachment theory provides a framework able to explain how the parent-child relationship emerges and influences subsequent development, becoming the key determinant of child's social emotional adaptation and cognitive growth .