Dissociation and the Parent-Infant Dialogue: a Longitudinal Perspective From Attachment Research

Abstract

Two longitudinal attachment studies of families at social risk have now followed their cohorts of infants to late adolescence. Several key findings have emerged related to outcomes of interest to psychoanalysts. First, data from both studies indicate that disorganized attachment behaviors in infancy are important precursors of later dissociative symptomatology. Second, this early vulnerability is related to patterns of parent-infant affective communication, particularly quieter behaviors like emotional unavailability or role reversal, and does not appear to reside in the infant alone. Finally, the results suggest that the quality of the attachment relationship may in part account for why some people exposed to later trauma develop dissociative symptoms and others do not. To paraphrase Dori Laub (1993), the mother's seeing and not knowing in infancy may be a precondition of her child's knowing and not knowing in late adolescence. It remains unclear, however, whether the early relationship is predictive due primarily to the onset of an internal defensive process in infancy or whether its predictive power resides primarily in enduring patterns of parent-child dialogue that continually reinforce the child's segregated and contradictory mental contents.

The Link between Types of Attachment and Childhood Trauma

“…Attachment system is among the fundamental action systems regulating responses to threats and preventing their interference to the daily action systems. When the attachment system is disrupted, individuals tend to focus more on issues like security and safety and ignore their development in other areas such as exploring, learning and establishing interpersonal relationships (daily action systems) [51]. Due to the aforementioned disruption, adults who were exposed to childhood trauma are likely to develop impaired attachment types with their partners.…”

Playing with reality: IV. A theory of external reality rooted in intersubjectivity

“…The action associated with this kind of normal projective process is likely to be sexual exploration (Fonagy & Target, in This process relates directly to the falling back on a focus on the physical self when there is a loss of social contingency, which we have discussed before. We saw that infants with disorganised attachment, exposed in the first year of life to unpredictable loss of contingent reactions (Goldberg et al, 2003;Lyons-Ruth, 2003), react by creating a highly predictable experience, looking at themselves. We anticipate that these individuals will have grave difficulty in engaging in the kind of normal projective identificatory process described above.…”

Phase-Oriented Treatment of Structural Dissociation in Complex Traumatization: Overcoming Trauma-Related Phobias

“…Under these conditions, neural networks related to daily life action systems become increasingly more complex and interactive through constant and consistent use, leading to a more cohesive personality and an individual who is well adapted to life with others (Lyons-Ruth, 2003).…”

“…Research and clinical observations have shown a strong link between disordered parental attachment, disorganized/disoriented attachment in the child, and chronic dissociation (Barach, 1991;Carlson, 1998;Liotti, 1992Liotti, , 1999Lyons-Ruth, 2003;Ogawa et al, 1997). Young children's innate attachment system evokes mental and behavioral approach when they are separated from their caregiver.…”

“…In fact, several authors regard disordered attachment as central to complex dissociative disorders (e.g., Barach, 1991;Blizard, 2003;Liotti, 1992Liotti, , 1999Lyons-Ruth, 2003). Because attachment is experienced as dangerous when one has been hurt recurrently by known and trusted others, an eventual phobia of attachment and intimacy may develop.…”