ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the contribution of attachment theory in both the conceptualisation of negative emotional and social outcomes following adult acquired brain injury, and guiding therapeutic responses for both individual survivors and couples/family interventions. A central finding of attachment theory is that, based on repeated interaction with attachment figures, children develop expectations in relation to the nature of these interactions. Considering the importance of attachment after brain injury compels us to keep in mind not only the survivor’s attachment history but also the relative’s. Difficulties in preserving old, and developing new, reciprocal and nurturing attachment relationships after brain damage cannot only compromise functional and emotional adjustment but also contribute to social isolation. From a developing point of view, attachment facilitates the establishment of interpersonal relationships, which are the social context where the immature brain of the child uses the mature functions of the parent’s brain to organize and scaffold its own processes.
