Attachment and Intersubjectivity

This text focuses on the understanding of the epistemological roots of psychoanalysis and its clinical implications. In this context, attachment theory is linked with a type of psychoanalysis which has moved away from "one-person psychology" to a "multi-person psychology".

Attachment theory has been defined as an open paradigm which tries to explain why human beings tend to form and maintain significant relationships with specific others and how these relationships influence psychological and psychosomatic functioning throughout the life cycle. In this context, attachment theory is a theory of both optimal and pathological development.

Attachment theory emphasizes the importance of the effect that real life experiences have on personality development. Bowlby's early study of the influence of the parent-child relationship on the development of neurosis and neurotic character and his report on juvenile delinquency emphasized the importance of parental dysfunction, neglect and/or maltreatment in the lives of children and adolescents who are going to present as psychiatric casualties.

Attachment theory is not just a theory of outcome, but also a theory of process - process across generations and across dynamic interactions between the individual and his world of others. This position is congenial with contemporary philosophical and developmental thinking as well as with recent advances in the neurosciences.

Attachment and Intersubjectivity by Nicola Diamond and Mario Marrone provides an insightful exploration of these concepts and their implications.