Disorganized infant, child, and adult attachment: Collapse in behavioral and attentional strategies

This presentation focuses on the disorgonized/disoriented (Group D) categor ies of infant, child, and adult attachment. The infant D category is assign ed on the basis of interruptions and anomalies in organization and orientat ion observed during Ainsworth's strange situation procedure. In neurologica lly normal low-risk samples, D attachment is not substantially related to d escriptions of infant temperament, and usually appears with respect to only one parent. At six, former D infants are often found to be role-inverting (D-Controlling) towards the parent, while drawings and separation-related n arratives (D-Fearful) suggest continuing states of fear and disorganization . In adults, marked lapses in reasoning and discourse surrounding the discu ssion of loss or abuse during the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) causes a transcript to be assigned to Unresolved/disorgonized (U/d) adult attachmen t status, which predicts infant D attachment. Bowlby's theory is extended, with the proposal that certain forms of frightening parental behavior will arouse contradictory biologically channeled propensities to approach and to take flight from the parent. Maltreated infants are therefore highly likel y to be disorganized. Also identified are subtler forms of frightening pare ntal behavior (including dissociative behavior and anomalous forms of frigh tened behavior) that appear to lead to infant disorganization. This suggest s that infant D attachment may at times represent a second-generation effec t of the parent's own continuing unresolved responses to trauma. Infant D a ttachment predicts disruptive/aggressive and dissociative disorders in chil dhood and adolescence, while U/d adult attachment appears frequently in psy chiatric and criminal populations. Clinical implications are discussed.