Attachment and Psychopathology

Abstract

The type of attachment defined in the early stages of life and thought to be continuous, is a phenomenon that shapes the pattern of how a person makes contact with others. The clinical appearance of every type of attachment is different and each one has prospective and retrospective phenomenological reflections. In all stages of life and in close relationships, it can be observed if a person gets in close contact with someone else and if this relation bears supportive and protective qualities. According to attachment theorists, once it is defined as safe or unsafe during nursing period, it shows little change. Starting from Bowlby’s work, unsafe attachment type is considered as the determining factor of psychopathology in the later periods of life, while safe attachment is considered as in relation with healthy processes. The nature’s original model is safe attachment. Anxious/indecisive attachment, an unsafe attachment type, is associated with anxiety disorders and depressive disorder, while avoidant attachment is associated with behavior disorder and other extroverted pathologies. Disorganized/disoriented attachment is considered to be together with dissociative disorder. The aim of this paper is to review attachment theory and the relation between attachment and psychopathology.

Keywords

• attachment
• attachment style
• psychopathology