Developing a secure base in family intervention: using the adult attachment projective system to assess attachment in family relationships
Families are core to human well-being. Therapeutic intervention may be needed in the context of family disruptions. Attachment theory conceptualizes parents as the secure base and safe haven that support children’s optimal development. Parents who have experienced their own attachment difficulties o...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2023-11-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1291661/full |
| _version_ | 1797640017762320384 |
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| author | Carol George Julie Wargo Aikins |
| author_facet | Carol George Julie Wargo Aikins |
| author_sort | Carol George |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Families are core to human well-being. Therapeutic intervention may be needed in the context of family disruptions. Attachment theory conceptualizes parents as the secure base and safe haven that support children’s optimal development. Parents who have experienced their own attachment difficulties or traumas may not provide quality caregiving necessary for balanced secure parent–child attachment relationships. Following Bowlby’s original thinking (1988), an attachment approach to family intervention views the therapist as a secure base that enables families to explore individual and system problems to restore equilibrium. Attachment informed therapy uses attachment theory to understand family functioning. However, the unavailability of valid economical assessment for examining attachment representations has constricted the practical utility of attachment theory in family therapy beyond applications of general concepts. This chapter describes the Adult Attachment Projective Pictures System (AAP) and explores its use as an efficient manner for assessing attachment representations within families that allows therapists to understand problematic interactions, disabling defensive processes, make predictions concerning negative patterns, and create targets for change and restorative intervention. Consolidating three decades of attachment and caregiving system research, we describe how distinct patterns of AAP responses for each adult attachment group map onto expected parenting and family system expectations and behaviors to provide a concise and informative framework. In addition to the traditional adult attachment patterns (Secure, Dismissing, Preoccupied, Unresolved), we describe for the first time expectations for two additional forms of incomplete pathological mourning (Failed Mourning and Preoccupied with Personal Suffering) that have been overlooked in the field. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T13:24:56Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d9321cc49933454490bd5b714ae83759 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T13:24:56Z |
| publishDate | 2023-11-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-d9321cc49933454490bd5b714ae837592023-11-03T08:24:17ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782023-11-011410.3389/fpsyg.2023.12916611291661Developing a secure base in family intervention: using the adult attachment projective system to assess attachment in family relationshipsCarol George0Julie Wargo Aikins1Mills College at Northeastern University, Oakland, CA, United StatesMerill Palmer Skillman Institute and The Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, United StatesFamilies are core to human well-being. Therapeutic intervention may be needed in the context of family disruptions. Attachment theory conceptualizes parents as the secure base and safe haven that support children’s optimal development. Parents who have experienced their own attachment difficulties or traumas may not provide quality caregiving necessary for balanced secure parent–child attachment relationships. Following Bowlby’s original thinking (1988), an attachment approach to family intervention views the therapist as a secure base that enables families to explore individual and system problems to restore equilibrium. Attachment informed therapy uses attachment theory to understand family functioning. However, the unavailability of valid economical assessment for examining attachment representations has constricted the practical utility of attachment theory in family therapy beyond applications of general concepts. This chapter describes the Adult Attachment Projective Pictures System (AAP) and explores its use as an efficient manner for assessing attachment representations within families that allows therapists to understand problematic interactions, disabling defensive processes, make predictions concerning negative patterns, and create targets for change and restorative intervention. Consolidating three decades of attachment and caregiving system research, we describe how distinct patterns of AAP responses for each adult attachment group map onto expected parenting and family system expectations and behaviors to provide a concise and informative framework. In addition to the traditional adult attachment patterns (Secure, Dismissing, Preoccupied, Unresolved), we describe for the first time expectations for two additional forms of incomplete pathological mourning (Failed Mourning and Preoccupied with Personal Suffering) that have been overlooked in the field.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1291661/fullattachmentrepresentationadult attachment projective picture systemparentstraumafamily therapy |
| spellingShingle | Carol George Julie Wargo Aikins Developing a secure base in family intervention: using the adult attachment projective system to assess attachment in family relationships Frontiers in Psychology attachment representation adult attachment projective picture system parents trauma family therapy |
| title | Developing a secure base in family intervention: using the adult attachment projective system to assess attachment in family relationships |
| title_full | Developing a secure base in family intervention: using the adult attachment projective system to assess attachment in family relationships |
| title_fullStr | Developing a secure base in family intervention: using the adult attachment projective system to assess attachment in family relationships |
| title_full_unstemmed | Developing a secure base in family intervention: using the adult attachment projective system to assess attachment in family relationships |
| title_short | Developing a secure base in family intervention: using the adult attachment projective system to assess attachment in family relationships |
| title_sort | developing a secure base in family intervention using the adult attachment projective system to assess attachment in family relationships |
| topic | attachment representation adult attachment projective picture system parents trauma family therapy |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1291661/full |
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