⌬ Lecture №9 | Attachment
In this lecture, I talk about attachment theory. I cover (1) the work of John Bowlby, Amry Ainsworth, and Mary Main. I also talk about the impact of trauma on attachment.
Review
- Ego psychology – Made mainly in America, has the goal of making the individual's ego stronger more flexible. This means increasing what is called ego functioning and become less defensive. This theory relies on the economic model, which postulates that there is a finite and limited amount of energy in our psychological system and that all the things we are doing take energy. Defending ourselves takes energy, and therefore the less energy going into defense can be freed up and put into more productive things and stuff.
- Self psychology – Also made here in America, by a dude named Heinz Kohut, who believed that the self is something deeper and more fundamental than our ego. Kohut believed the self is a co-created thing, made by an individual in partnership with the people and institutions in the individual's environment. Kohut also believed our self is never done being formed, that it forms throughout our entire life cycle. Relationships are important in this theory, in particular relationships with people who make us who we are. If we are able to get enough of what we need from those around us we turn out more OK. If we don't get what we need from those around us we turn out more not OK.
Now with that review out of the way we are going to jump across the Atlantic Ocean and look at a theory called attachment theory, which started out over in Great Britain. But first some transition music...
History
Attachment – Let's start by getting into the different attachment styles as three thinkers articulated them over time.
- First, we have John Bowlby, who theorized something called a secure base, which is necessary for a person to develop a secure attachment.
- An important thing to realize about secure attachment is that it is not the absence of difficult or problematic emotions! (e.g., Anxiety, sadness, being jealous, frustrated, etc.) Rather, it is a person being able to experience, acknowledge, and then process those emotions in ways that are generally not very destructive.
- Next, we have Many Ainsworth, who was Bowlby's research assistant, who articulated something called insecure attachment.
- There are two sub-types of insecure attachment – Avoidant-dismissing and anxious-preoccupied.
- Ainsworth is also an important thinker for attachment theory because she created something called the Strange situation experiment.
- This experiment is done when kids are between 9-18 months old.
The Strange Situation Procedure is divided into eight episodes, lasting for three minutes each. In the first episode, the infant and his or her caregiver enter into a pleasant laboratory setting, with many toys. After one minute, a person unknown to the infant enters the room and slowly tries to make acquaintance. The caregiver leaves the child with the stranger for three minutes; and then returns. The caregiver departs for a second time, leaving the child alone for three minutes; it is then the stranger who enters, and offers to comfort the infant. Finally, the caregiver returns, and is instructed to pick up the child. As the episodes increase the stress of the infant by increments, the observer can watch the infant's movement between behavioural systems: the interplay of exploration and attachment behaviour, in the presence and in the absence of the parent.
- Ainsworth also studied attachment in Uganda and other places and helped us to see that attachment is not something that is only a culturally produced phenomena in western cultures (e.g., European / North American).
- Mary Main (who is still alive and I think working) articulated the idea of disorganized attachment.
- She also helped create the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), which I've linked to on the course Moodle page.
- Some people (I'm one of them) think that disorganized attachment is a better way to think about what we call BPD today.
Styles
There are four different attachment styles you should know. Let's review them:
- Secure – autonomous (Bowlby)
- Avoidant – dismissing (Ainsworth)
- Anxious – preoccupied (Ainsworth)
- Disorganized – unresolved (Main)
Additional Points
Some key points that I want you all to know because are not covered in your readings.
- Attachment theory says that a person's attachment can (and probably will) change throughout the course of their life.
- This means that it is possible to move from an insecure attachment style to a secure style of attachment. However, it usually happens the other way around.
- It is not difficult (i.e., it is easy) to take someone from a secure attachment and make them insecure.
- Trauma leads to insecurity. When we think about trauma, it helps to think of it along with two variables. Trauma can be intense, abrupt and sudden, and short in duration. (Think of getting hit by lightning.) Or it can be low intensity but drawn out over time. (Think of middle school.) In some rare cases, it can be both high intensity and drawn out over time... More on that in a second.
- Another way we can think about trauma is to compare it to a physical injury. Let's talk about emotional bones and long-drawn-out physical issues.
- When someone is traumatized, they can heal, but they will always have some scar tissue. They will also always be prone to reinjury of the traumatized area of their lives.
