Childhood, attachment, separation, and trauma

British Journal of Psychotherapy, 2012

Reading this book was a rather humbling experience in that I realized that there is so much more research on the impact of early life trauma than I knew, even though I was familiar with quite a number of seminal papers in the field. One of the remarkable aspects of the book is the range of research that it covers, from the epidemiology of childhood trauma and the history of professional attitudes to the problem, through diagnostic controversies, psychosocial issues, longitudinal studies on the immediate and long-term neurobiological, psychological and physical effects of early relational trauma, to the implications all these hold for clinical work with children and adults who have suffered early-life trauma. This huge body of research is discussed and summarized in three sections, each of which has short co-authored chapters, so that the expertise of key researchers and clinicians across the whole field of traumatology is represented. The editors of the book are three psychiatrists, Ruth Lanius and Claire Pain from Canada, and Eric Vermetten from the Netherlands, all neuroscience and trauma research specialists who also explore the implications of empirical research for clinical psychotherapy practice. The focus of almost all these papers is on the hugely damaging impact that neglect or abuse by primary caregivers has on the psychological and emotional development of the human infant, creating lifelong consequences in terms of brain development, attachment and affect dysregulation, altered stress responses and a range of psychological symptoms, from the flashbacks and hyper-arousal of PTSD to altered perception, epileptic-type phenomena and dissociative states of varying degrees of severity, including borderline personality and dissociative identity disorder. This evidence from neurobiology powerfully supports the argument that it is real-life experience rather than innate unconscious phantasy that determines most of the problems our patients bring to the consulting room and so is highly relevant to our clinical practice. In Section I, the epidemiology and history of childhood trauma are first described, with several authors commenting on the reluctance of some professional groups to accept the link between childhood trauma and a range of physical and psychological symptoms they see in their patients. In the synopsis to this section, McFarlane suggests that: 'Clinicians' capacities for observation and description of patients' predicaments are more determined by the models of psychopathology that clinicians adhere to than the history presented to them by the patient' (p. 44). McFarlane suggests that psychoanalytic theory carries considerable responsibility for 'the millions of patients whose stories were told but not believed, being dismissed as oedipal fantasies' (p. 44). But medicine, psychology and psychiatry also failed to recognize the destructiveness of childhood abuse, as part of a broader denial of the significance of trauma. Van der Kolk highlights the shocking example of one psychiatric textbook, published in the 1970s that actually extolled 'the possible benefits to a child of incest' (p. 58).

Drawing on concepts from ethology, cybernetics, information processing, developmental psychology, and psychoanalysts, John Bowlby formulated the basic tenets of the theory. He thereby revolutionized our thinking about a child's tie to the mother and its disruption through separation, deprivation, and bereavement. Mary Ainsworth's innovative methodology not only made it possible to test some of Bowlby's ideas empirically hut also helped expand the theory itself and is responsible for some of the new directions it is now taking. Ainsworth contributed the concept of the attachment figure as a secure base from which an infant can explore the world. In addition, she formulated the concept of maternal sensitivity to infant signals and its role in the development of infant-mother attachment patterns.

International Forum of Psychoanalysis, 2004

Propriety of the Erich Fromm Document Center. For personal use only. Citation or publication of material prohibited without express written permission of the copyright holder. Eigentum des Erich Fromm Dokumentationszentrums. Nutzung nur für persönliche Zwecke. Veröffentlichungen-auch von Teilen-bedürfen der schriftlichen Erlaubnis des Rechteinhabers.

2014

T he historical relationship between clinical social work and psychoanalysis is both fascinating and extremely complex. Classical psychoanalytic theory and, later, ego psychology stand in relation to social work theory and practice in much the same way as the theory of relativity stands in relation to modern theoretical physics. In each case, the introduction of a new and radical theory has had far-reaching ramifications for the existing framework of knowledge. In this chapter, psychoanalytic ideas and their unique contributions and adaptations to the practice of clinical social work will be discussed and explored in depth. Psychoanalytic theory, of course, is not a unified body of knowledge; rather, it is composed of multiple theories, model , and schemata pertaining to development, P ychopathology, and clinical method and technique. It is a literature of vast scope whose evolution spans an entire century. PSYCHOANALYSIS AND CLINICAL SOCIAL WORK: A CONCISE HISTORY

Online journal available here: http://pacja.org.au/?p=2913 This edition of PACJA promises an eclectic and exciting collection of articles under the broad theme of psychoanalytic theories and therapies. What characterizes these different articles – the first three in particular – is an analysis of analysis or, in Jon Mills’ terms, an internal critique of psychoanalytic theories and therapies. This critique from within is important; it is part of the process of scholarly and clinical reflection and revision and yet, as Mills describes, it is so often fraught. While critique from outside psychoanalysis is predictably dismissive, faulting psychoanalytic concepts such as the unconscious on their lack of empirical evidence or theories such as infantile sexuality on their apparently preposterous and fantastical qualities, critique from within tends to be fractious and lead to splits within and across schools.

British Journal of Psychotherapy, 2000

Attachment Theory, itself an offspring of psychoanalysis, can play a significant part in helping to link contemporary psychoanalysis with developments in neurobiology, neoDarwinism and infant research. Some highlights of this research are presented. Interpersonal experience in infancy impacts on the developing brain. Patterns of insecure attachment can be related to classical psychoanalytic defence mechanisms, but are seen as ways of maintaining contact with an object in suboptimal environments. The Adult Attachment Interview establishes different patterns of narrative style which can be related to parent-child interaction in infancy, and has confirmed many of psychoanalysis's major developmental hypotheses. With the help of two clinical examples, it is suggested that attachment ideas can help with clinical listening and identifying and intervening with different narrative styles in therapy.

What connects thinking and poetry is metaphor. In philosophy one calls concept what in poetry is called metaphor. Thinking creates its -concepts‖ out of the visible, in order to designate the invisible.‖ Hannah Arendt, Thought Journal, 1969 1 My topic tonight is the use and abuse of psychoanalytic theory. Using Plato's image of a divided line, I will develop a context for thinking about aspects of psychoanalytic theory. More precisely, I shall explore the modes of knowing and aspects of being at issue when we study psychoanalytic theory. We learn about psychoanalysis indirectly, I shall argue, by studying various -images‖ of the analytic process [e.g. case histories or written reports]. We also learn about it directly by analyzing and being analyzed, by practicing and being supervised. Finally, we learn to think about what we are doing when we practice analysis by studying the major hypotheses about the unconscious that constitute the psychoanalytic tradition.