Posted by baseball55 on January 22, 2014, at 19:35:51
In reply to Re: Attachment Theory? » SLS, posted by Twinleaf on January 22, 2014, at 16:39:54
Thanks for this. Very interesting and informative. However, I would raise one issue. While therapy based on this kind of detailed analysis may be new, the idea of therapy as a kind of re-parenting is not very new at all. I don't recall the names and dates, but for at least a few decades, therapists practicing psycho-dynamic therapy rejected most Freudian ideas in favor Kohut's self-psychology whcih emphasized the idea that the therapist should act as a "good-enough" parent, providing unconditional positive regard (secure attachment), mirroring the patient's emotional state (engaging the right brain), and working through the transference until the patient could mourn their lack of a secure childhood and learn to soothe and become compassionate to themselves.
Both my 74 year old psychiatrist and my 45 year old social worker/therapist, subscribe to this view, though their language is slightly different. Glen Gabbard, who has written two textbooks on psychodynamic therapy for psychiatrists in training, subscribes to this view.
So I'm not sure how new or unique this attachment therapy is. Ultimately, I think most therapy is about forging a strong attachment with a therapist, learning to feel secure in that attachment, and, through that attachment, learning to venture out in the world safely, as a securely attached baby crawls away and looks over her shoulder to be sure the parent is still there.
Studies of therapy show over and over that the most important variable in therapeutic impact is the quality of the relationship between therapist and patient. Even Freud came to believe that the transference (attachment of patient to therapist) was the most important part of therapy.
poster:baseball55
thread:1058503
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20131211/msgs/1059277.html