reason 2: attachment
TRANSCRIPT
Why Infant Mental Health?
Three Reasons:1) Fetal Programming2) Attachment3) Therapy
Reason 2: Attachment
Neil W. Boris, MDTulane Institute of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health
Infant Psychiatrist?
Reaching for Meds?!
via Flickr user ThomasThomas
http://www.flickr.com/photos/74078214@N00/268846488/
• Sense of self• How to view/relate to others• How to regulate behavior and emotions
• Done in the context of relationships• Starts before birth
What Makes for Healthy Emotional Development?
via Flickr user LadyDragonflyCC
http://www.flickr.com/photos/19646481@N06/4121739977/
Developmental Theories
What sets Attachment Theory apart?
– Linked to natural selection as driving force:
Protection of young = protection of genes
via Flickr user ROSS HONG KONG
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27302727@N03/5188594987/
Developmental Theories
What sets Attachment Theory apart?
• Linked to natural selection as driving force.
• Based theory on observations
• De-emphasized the role of “meeting oral needs”
Protection of young = protection of genes
Ethology and Harry Harlow’s monkeys
The concept of imprinting as a cross-species phenomenon
Who is THIS guy????
Konrad Lorenz
Nobel Prize in Medicine, 1973
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1973/lorenz-lecture.pdf
When imprinting studies go awry…
• Inborn system – feedback loop
• Operative throughout life
• External goal in infancy is to balance exploration and proximity to caregiver (“the secure base”)
• Internal goal to achieve sense of felt security
Definition of Attachment:
http://www.psychology.sunysb.edu/attachment/online/inge_origins.pdf
Circle of Security“The Feedback Loop”
· Protect me · Comfort me· Delight in me· Organize my feelings
I need you to
Support My Exploration
Welcome My Coming To You
I need you to
· Watch over me· Help me· Enjoy with me• Delight in me
I need you to
I need you to
© Cooper, Hoffman, Marvin and Powell
2 Roles of Attachment Figure
SECURE BASE SAFE HAVEN
2 Roles of Attachment Figure
SECURE BASE Facilitate child’s exploration of
physical environment Emotionally available Physically available
ALLOWING THE CHILD TO GO INTO THE ENVIRONMENT TO EXPLORE
SAFE HAVEN
2 Roles of Attachment Figure
SECURE BASE Facilitate child’s exploration of
physical environment Emotionally available Physically available
ALLOWING THE CHILD TO GO INTO THE ENVIRONMENT TO EXPLORE
SAFE HAVEN
Responding sensitively in stressful/alarming situations
Provide reassurance Provide comfort Provide protection
WELCOMING THE CHILD BACK FOR COMFORT/PROTECTION
Secure Base
Safe Haven
Why All The Fuss?1. Selection of neuronal
pathways
2. Emotions – development and regulation
3. Shaping of Internal Working Models/Representations
Schore, 1999
Attachment:The “Internal Working Model”
Story of the Relationship
Attachment: The “Internal Working Model”
• Relationship template (‘structure of the mind’)
• Formed by experience (influenced by temperament genes)
• Accessible in adults by interview
• Predicts later patterns of behavior in relationships (stable though malleable)
Disorganized Attachment
I need you but you are so frightened or
frightening that I have no one to turn to and I don’t know what to do.
Disorganized Attachment
I need you but you are so frightened or
frightening that I have no one to turn to and I don’t know what to do.
The Clinical Power of Attachment
• Tools to assess internal working models– In caregivers and in children
• Reliable ways to pick out disorganized attachment
• Therapies that are attachment-based
• Promoting security is protective
Thank you for your attention!
Neil W. Boris, MDTulane Institute of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health