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Attachment Theory in Context
There’s nothing so practical as a good theory…
Psychodynamic/psychoanalytic theories: concern with motivational drives and conflict
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Freud: sexual/aggressive drives – emphasis on
‘intrapsychic’ processes – psychic reality more important than historical reality
Object Relations School: primary drive is to seek relationships
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Attachment Theory – Bowlby: we seek relationships for protection, safety – response of caregiver to this seeking crucial to development
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Emphasis on the role of environmental factors – deprivation, loss and separation.

Context Continued…
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Struggle for theory to be accepted: ‘What about phantasy?’
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But clearly part of a move from emphasis on intrapsychic processes to interpsychic, to interpersonal: from nature to nurture.
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Parallel move in psychotherapy: increasing emphasis on the relationship – the therapeutic alliance.
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Attachment Theory as a more ‘concrete’ theory, based on observation rather than inference
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Bowlby’s influence: shift in public policy – residential day nurseries; parents staying with children in hospital
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Theory developed by research

John Bowlby
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Lived 1907-1990
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A seasick sailor
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Entered medical training, then psychoanalysis, intending to be a child psychiatrist.
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Trained in child analysis with Melanie Klein
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Became aligned with others interested in the impact of the environment, including WH Rivers of ‘Regeneration’ fame.
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Came to see importance of: instinct for self-preservation; also boned between mother and child.
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Wrote ‘Forty-four juvenile thieves’ – the affectionless psychopath.
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Post-war : WHO – mental health of homeless children – leading to ‘Child Care and the Growth of Love’ (1953): maternal deprivation.
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Attachment Theory: blending psychoanalytic theory with
Ethology
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The Big Three : ‘Attachment’ (1969), ‘Separation’ (1975),
‘Loss’ (1980)

What is attachment theory?
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A primary motivational system – not related to feeding, etc.
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Purpose: safety, protection from environmental threat
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Describes the emotional bond between people, where one
(usually) is perceived to be wiser, stronger
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A spatial theory, characterised by proximity seeking
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Secure attachment allows exploration: the secure base
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Loss of attachment leads to separation
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Lack of resolution leads to disturbance in development
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In longer term, if no adequate developmental pathway is available, disturbance likely to persist through the life cycle.
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The disturbance is the result of the environmental failure, plus the sense the individual makes of it.

The Secure Base
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Ainsworth (1982) : term used to describe the feeling of safety created in the child by the caregiver
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Child will venture away from caregiver, explore, return at times of stress/threat
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Persists throughout life cycle: ‘All of us, from the cradle to the grave, are happiest when life is organised as a series of excursions, long or short, from the secure base provided by our attachment figures.’
 depends on caregiver’s/child’s interactions: caregiver’s capacity to be attuned to the child’s feelings; to contain those feelings; to give them back to the child in a form the child can manage.

Development of Attachment Behaviour
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0-6 months: new born does not discriminate between caregivers o but responsive to contact o evoking a smile (attunement again) – baby’s nascent capacity to initiate an interaction – sense of agency, effectiveness.
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6 months – 3 years: baby begins to show stranger anxiety – ‘Not the mummy’. Beginning to explore environment, beginning of internal working model.
3 years + : development of language. Child can think of parents as separate people, own goals, own minds
(mentalization) – more sophisticated attachment seeking behaviour
Adolescence: breaking of attachment bonds, via the group, on to pairing
Adult attachment: finding partners

Stages in Separation and Loss
Child: o Protest o Despair o Detachment/Denial
Four phases of mourning: o Numbing o Yearning, searching, anger o Disorganisation and disrepair o Re-organisation

Attachment Theory and Personality Disorder
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Looking at Borderline PD, studies suggest high levels of emotional neglect and trauma
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Affect regulation: our ability to manage our own feelings, to think about them; and the feelings of others
– our minds and others’ minds – mentalization.
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Infant’s sense of self depends on affective quality of relationship with caregivers
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Ability of caregiver to tune in to infant’s feelings, to manage them, give them back – attunement, holding, containing.
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Insecure attachment is likely to result from these failures
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Will lead to development of an internal working model along lines of: I am not worthy of love, others are not capable of giving it – but a yearning for what has been missed (mourning).
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Internal/external conflict: ‘I hate you, don’t leave me!’