ABSTRACT
The study of human attachment organization is founded on the work of John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth, and takes among its topics several issues central to clinical work. This chapter begins with a history of the field, pointing first to Bowlby’s early emphasis on the attachment figure as the infant’s solution to experiences of fright and then to Ainsworth’s discoveries regarding the three traditional forms of “organized” infant attachment–secure, insecure-avoidant, and insecure-resistant/ambivalent–together with their behavioral precursors and sequelae. Finally, the discovery of a fourth, disorganized/disoriented form of insecure infant attachment is described, together with the reappearance of these four forms of infant attachment status in discourse, narrative, and other representational processes during childhood and adulthood. I then discuss the “organized” insecure infant (avoidant and resistant) and adult (dismissing and preoccupied) attachment patterns in terms of defensive process, and I review earlier proposals that individuals disorganized with the primary caregiver in infancy may be more vulnerable than others to anxiety, phobia, and dissociative experiences. Finally, I consider potential links among adult attachment, mental suffering, and the therapeutic process.
