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Separation Crises in Over‐Attached Families
Author(s) -
Quadrio Carolyn,
Levy Florence
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of family therapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.297
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 1467-8438
pISSN - 0814-723X
DOI - 10.1002/j.1467-8438.1988.tb01253.x
Subject(s) - attachment theory , psychoanalytic theory , individuation , psychology , perspective (graphical) , process (computing) , opposition (politics) , social psychology , psychoanalysis , computer science , political science , artificial intelligence , operating system , politics , law
Families are described as “over‐attached” whose members respond anxiously to the otherwise normal unfolding of separation‐individuation processes and in the absence of past traumatic separations. It is observed that “anxious attachment” occurs with over‐availability just as with under‐availability of attachment figures and that attachment is an intra‐familial process as well as a dyadic one. A reformulation of Bowlby's attachment theory is required in order to encompass this systemic perspective, and to allow also for the integration of intrapsychic and extrapsychic process. Bowlby's control systems model need not stand in opposition to either systemic or psychoanalytic thinking.