Posted by Twinleaf on January 22, 2014, at 16:39:54
In reply to Attachment Theory?, posted by SLS on January 13, 2014, at 22:18:23
Just noticed this thread, and thought I would comment because I have been having a type of therapy based on it. The concept that relative failures in secure attachment during early childhood were responsible for anxiety and depressive disorders in later life were suggested about 50 years ago by John Bowlby in the UK. Mary Main and others in the US classified attachment into four types: Secure, Insecure (attached but anxious), Avoidant (avoiding closeness, tending to anger if approached too closely), and Disorganized ( the most severe, indicating a complete lack of ability to attach as sometimes seen in orphans).
One of the most significant therapists to base his work on attachment in recent years is Allan Schore of UCLA. He thinks that the most important function of the mothering figure in the first two years of life is to foster a secure attachment so that the infant lays down the proper neurons and connections in the right hemisphere so as to be able to regulate its own anxiety and distress. Therapy is modeled on what a "good enough" mother does with an infant - such things as allowing the client to take the lead in choosing the topic, staying with whatever feelings are there, not asking questions or changing the subject, not analyzing or interpreting ( those would be left hemisphere functions). It is based on the understanding that the mother uses her own right hemisphere as well as a variety of non-verbal communications ( gaze, intuition, body movement), to let the client's right (unconscious) hemisphere know that it is understood. The most amazing thing is that new neuronal connections can be formed throughout adult life that allow a client to become more securely attached, both to the therapist and other important people, and will also allow him to gain new brain structures which make greater emotional self-regulation possible. This kind of therapy is so new ( since about 2000) that it's hard to find a therapist who does it. If you are someone who feels they have deficits in early mothering, this kind of therapy is ideal, and can be life-transforming. I feel certain it will rapidly gain many more therapists who are trained to do it.
poster:Twinleaf
thread:1058503
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20131211/msgs/1059259.html