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Living language and the resonant self
Published in Anthony Korner, Communicative Exchange, Psychotherapy and the Resonant Self, 2020
Patterns of self-organization become established early in life. These internal working models (Bowlby, 1984; Holmes, 1993) are not accessible to conscious awareness, yet structure the individual’s perception of the world. Internalized models of relatedness are an unconscious influence in the mind, although also part of felt reality in development. Such models are held in implicit memory systems (Schore, 2012; Wachtel, 2008). These are sensed as the way the relational world is, part of a worldview that assumes these models as facts rather than recognizing their relationship to personal context (Korner, 2011). The internal working model is manifest in the way adults use language, as demonstrated by the reliability of the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) in identifying early attachment patterns. If a person hasn’t had a secure experience in early life, as an adult they will have difficulty talking coherently about their childhood. In the case of those with early disorganized attachment experiences, life narratives typically become markedly incoherent. In adults the AAI is primarily a measure of coherence of linguistic expression (Main et al., 1985).
The Clinical Psychologist in an Open Inpatient Setting
Published in Meidan Turel, Michael Siglag, Alexander Grinshpoon, Clinical Psychology in the Mental Health Inpatient Setting, 2019
For this young woman, as for many of our patients, psychological difficulties could be traced to disruptions in development resulting from failures in mourning across the generations. As we see from the literature on disorganized attachment, the ways in which failures to work through loss result in preoccupied parents who are at times emotionally inaccessible to their children (Liotti, 1999; Main & Hesse, 1990). Those failures disrupt the development of self-regulation and identity, which are tied to parental attunement and sequences of disruption and repair (Beebe & Lachmann, 1994). Having an index of where the person is stuck developmentally can help us to recognize the 2-, 5-, or 12-year-old caught in an adult body, and to empathize with the difficulty of being both child and adult in moments of strain. A developmental perspective can help us to recognize the gap between the pretense of adulthood and the person’s actual capacities, particularly under strain.
The therapist–client relationship
Published in Rebecca L. Haller, Karen L. Kennedy, Christine L. Capra, The Profession and Practice of Horticultural Therapy, 2019
Attachment therapy is based on the work of John Bowlby (1988), who studied the attachment relationship between parents and young children. He noted how infants have a range of inherent purposeful behaviors to keep their primary caregivers engaged in caring for them. Evolution favors successful attachment because human babies require significant care after birth in order to survive. Bowlby, along with researcher Mary Ainsworth, observed three different attachment relationships that developed based on the quality of early relationships with caregivers: secure, anxious, and avoidant. Researcher Mary Main later added disorganized attachment (Karen 1998). The quality of early attachment relationships may significantly shape expectations regarding relationships throughout one’s life.
Rethinking Empathy
Published in Psychiatry, 2021
Longitudinal studies done in middle class samples support continuity between a history of avoidant attachment in infancy and dismissive categories in the AAI and between disorganized attachment in infancy and lapses in metacognitive monitoring in the AAI (Sroufe et al., 2005). One of the most striking findings in the Minnesota study was to find an intergenerational transmission of disorganized attachment as the children of the study were married and had their first-born children. Attachment research has shown that disorganized forms of attachment are associated with high-risk factors, with different forms of psychopathology in children, and with dissociative symptoms later in life (Sroufe, 2021; Sroufe et al., 2005). The finding makes early intervention a priority for parents who are at high risk of developing a disorganized attachment relation with their infants and young children. Fortunately, there are several effective early intervention programs that foster sensitive parenting capable of empathic (mentalizing) responses toward these infants and young children (Bick et al., 2012).
The aftershocks of infidelity: a review of infidelity-based attachment trauma
Published in Sexual and Relationship Therapy, 2021
Benjamin Warach, Lawrence Josephs
Childhood disorganized attachment is associated with a variety of maladaptive symptomatology. This includes externalizing and aggressive behavior (e.g. Carlson, 1998; Fearon, Bakermans-Kranenburg, van IJzendoorn, Lapsley, & Roisman, 2010 [males only]; Lyons-Ruth, 1996; Lyons-Ruth, Easterbrooks, & Cibelli, 1997; van IJzendoorn et al., 1999) and internalizing symptoms including increased attachment-related stress reactions (Hertsgaard, Gunnar, Erickson, & Nachmias, 1995; Spangler & Grossmann, 1993; van IJzendoorn et al., 1999) and displays of distress (Lyons-Ruth et al., 1997 [but only in conjunction with a primary avoidant attachment categorization]). It has also been associated with adolescent psychopathology, increased vulnerability to dissociative disorders, and signs of unresolved trauma (Carlson, 1998; Liotti, 1992; Morley & Moran, 2011; Obsuth, Hennighausen, Brumariu, & Lyons-Ruth, 2014). The externalizing and internalizing symptomatology of attachment disorganization may indicate overwhelming attachment-related emotional distress that the presenting child is unable to effectively resolve in a more organized way (van IJzendoorn et al., 1999). Disorganized attachment has accordingly been characterized as “fright without solution” (Main & Hesse, 2006, p. 310).
Insecure Attachment and Drug Misuse among Women
Published in Journal of Social Work Practice in the Addictions, 2019
Attachment theory refers to three attachment styles resulting from insecure attachments: preoccupied, dismissing (avoidant), and disorganized styles. Preoccupied attachment style develops as a result of caregiver inconsistency. With this attachment style, one is impulsive, feels unworthy, constantly seeks approval, and is dependent on others. Dismissing (avoidant) attachment style develops as a result of early experiences of rejection. In this attachment style, one denies the need for connection with others and suppresses his feelings. Finally, disorganized attachment style develops as a result of early trauma, abuse, neglect, or loss, leaving the individual feeling like a victim and prone to perceive relationships as dangerous (Wang & Stalker, 2016). Attachment styles are understood to be consistent throughout childhood and adulthood. However, research suggests that traumatic events increase the likelihood that a child develops insecure attachments even if they had a secure attachment style prior to the traumatic events (Kries, Gillings, Svanberg, & Schwannaur, 2016).