AFFECT, ATTACHMENT, MEMORY - CONTRIBUTIONS TOWARD PSYCHOBIOLOGIC INTEGRATION

RECENT decades have seen a marked expansion in knowledge regarding hum an neurophysiology, and psychiatry is currently challenged with the ta sk of integrating this information with a psychodynamic understanding of emotional life. In this paper we review portions of the relevant li terature regarding the basic brain functions of affect, memory, and at tachment, and we consider the implications of these data for integrate d psychobiologic conceptualizations of emotional dysfunction and its t reatment. In particular, data from these three areas of study point to the possibility that implicit memory of the early attachment relation ship, communicated via the language of affect, is an enduring neural s tructure that influences both emotional self-regulation and behavior r elated to relatedness. Finally, we consider the implications of this p roposition for the nature of psychotherapy, which from a psychobiologi c view might be profitably conceptualized as a directed attachment rel ationship whose purpose is the revision of the implicit emotional memo ry of attachment.