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Attachment Theory and Research: Implications for Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

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Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Research

Abstract

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 first 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 influential in his thinking about object relations, her conceptualization of development focused almost exclusively on internal conflict rather than external events in the child’s family and environment [4, 5]. 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 difficulties increase ­vulnerability to later psychopathology.

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Levy, K.N., Meehan, K.B., Temes, C.M., Yeomans, F.E. (2012). Attachment Theory and Research: Implications for Psychodynamic Psychotherapy. In: Levy, R., Ablon, J., Kächele, H. (eds) Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Research. Current Clinical Psychiatry. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60761-792-1_24

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