Attachment is understood as the emotional bond that a child develops with his mother during early childhood. The type of attachment she develops will condition a large part of the social relationships she establishes throughout her life. Becoming aware at a social level of the importance of this fact and promoting parenting practices that promote secure attachments is a relevant preventive measure for physical, mental and emotional health.
In the next article we will talk about disorganized attachment, a type of attachment resulting from negative childhood experiences that develops maladaptive behaviors in the people who establish it. We will expose What it consists of, what are its consequences and how to treat it clinically.
Types of attachment
According to J.Bowly’s attachment theory, the attachment is a instinctive behavior that occurs in the newborn with respect to their mother (or primary caregiver) as a biological survival mechanism. The baby seeks emotional protection from his mother that will allow him, later, to safely venture out to explore the world. exist four types attachment:
- secure attachment: shows separation anxiety but when the attachment figure returns he calms down.
- Anxious-avoidant attachment: shows little anxiety in the face of separation and little interest in the return of the attachment figure.
- Anxious-ambivalent-resistant attachment: He shows anxiety about separation but when the mother returns he shows his anger, despite wanting to be with her.
- Disorganized-disoriented attachment: He appears confused about the separation but does not approach the attachment figure as soon as he returns. It is the type of attachment that will be analyzed in this article.
Here you can see the details in detail.
What is disorganized attachment: definition
He disorganized attachment arises as a result of a childhood experience of confusion regarding the behavior of their parents. Their behavior is unpredictable, which generates feelings of anxiety in the infant. uncertainty, fear and lack of coherence and order. This type of attachment usually develops in children who live in environments with , where violent behaviors alternate with others of affection or fear and insecurity in the parents themselves.
Characteristics of disorganized attachment with examples
Children with disorganized attachment are characterized by:
- To emit contradictory behaviors towards caregivers: approach, seeking their care, and avoidance, out of fear.
- Little or no exploration of the environment. They have generalized the experience with their parents so that they perceive the world as threatening
- This limitation in their experimentation of the environment along with the consequences of the traumatic experience itself hinders their cognitive development (deficits in attention, concentration and memory; poor, disorganized and redundant verbal expression; etc.).
- Low self-esteema result of the undervaluation received from their caregivers.
- Dissociation: They lose contact with reality due to their desire and impossibility of wanting to escape. Here you will see more information about it.
Consequences of disorganized attachment
The consequences in the life of the child, adolescent or adult in cases in which a disorganized attachment is established are quite negative, due to the emotional and psychological consequences that it causes in those affected. We will highlight the following:
- Aggressiveness: These are people who isolate themselves socially or establish themselves and remain on the defensive so, in the slightest situation of conflict, they may respond aggressively. It is a response that reflects the expression of anger contained by the traumatic experience and, at the same time, the emission of learned behavior in one’s environment as a measure of conflict resolution.
- Low self-esteem: They internalize a discourse based on that emitted by their parents (mostly negative) and on their own deductions of “worthlessness” as a way of justifying and rationalizing the mistreatment received. Here you can see the .
- Behavior problems: They tend to manifest antisocial, aggressive and challenging behaviors as a result, as we mentioned, of learned models and contained anger.
- Depression: the result of the entire experience, and despite their apparent strength manifested through their aggressiveness, they are people with a great inner emotional void. As a result of this, they often adopt addictive behaviors as a method of “emotional anesthesia.” Here you can see.
How to treat disorganized attachment
He disorganized attachment treatment It must contain a multidisciplinary intervention in the case of children and adolescents. It will be necessary to work together with the family, school, and social and therapeutic services to achieve positive and lasting changes.
With respect to adults, J.Bowly proposes in his book “A secure base” Five tasks to include in the therapeutic work process on attachment:
- Establish a climate of trust that allows the patient to begin a secure relationship with the therapist. This relationship of trust will allow you to delve into the darkest aspects of your life to explore the reasons that cause your current life difficulties.
- Accompany you in raising awareness how you currently create and maintain your personal relationships: what expectations you have of your behavior and of others; what behaviors it emits automatically and unconsciously (approach, avoidance, blocking, etc.); what responses it generates to the first results of the interactions (calm, fear, frustration and anger, flight,…); etc
- Analyze the relationship with the therapist himself, which will offer valuable information about how he creates relationships with attachment figures, a result of his previous experiences in childhood.
- Help you become aware to what extent his current thoughts, feelings and behaviors are conditioned by the relationship he had in the past with his parents and by the discourse he internalized about himself, about others and about the world from said relationship.
- Based on the recognition of these mental schemes created from your childhood experience, look for alternatives that allow you to heal those childhood wounds and create a new reality fairer with himself and with his possibility of personal development
These are complex therapeutic processes that generate defense mechanisms to not face the pain and remain, at least, in what is known, that is, the . However, despite how hard the process may be, it is necessary to go through it if we want to eliminate the symptoms or clinical conditions that led us to the consultation (anxiety, depression, aggression, antisocial behavior, etc.). Is about heal the wound from the root so that it stops leading to symptoms, conflicts or future illnesses. Otherwise, the wound will look for the paths it finds to continue manifesting itself.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
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Bibliography
- Duarte Mendoza, KD (2019). Disorganized attachment, its impact on the emotional development of a child (Bachelor’s thesis, BABAHOYO: UTB, 2019).
- Gago, J., Social Initiative, ASC, & Family Therapy, EVN (2014). Attachment theory. The link. Agintzari S. Coop. of Social Initiative. Basque Navarra School of Family Therapy.