Abstract
This exercise introduces the clinician to reactive attachment disorder (RAD), a childhood disorder involving a general failure of social relationship caused by early, grossly pathogenic care. In order to begin a study of such fundamental impediment to attachment in earliest life, we must as students of child psychiatry define what we mean by “attachment” and also must consider how we will prove a relationship to emotional neglect. A brief introduction to the process of normal, early childhood attachment is essential, before turning to the definition of abnormal attachment and to the topics of differential diagnosis and comorbidity.
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Shreeve, D.F. (2012). Introduction. In: Reactive Attachment Disorder. SpringerBriefs in Psychology(). Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-1647-0_1
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