Dissociation : Vol. 5, No. 4, p. 196-204 : Disorganized/disoriented attachment in the etiology of the dissociative disorders
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Date
1992-12
Authors
Liotti, Giovanni
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Ridgeview Institute and the International Society for the Study of Multiple Personality and Dissociation
Abstract
It has been suggested that multiple personality disorder (MPD) may be seen as an attachment disorder, related to the process of detachment (Barach, 1991). To think in terms of disorganized/disoriented (D) attachment seems a better way of conceptualizing not only MPD, but all the dissociative disorders in relation to difficulties experienced in early attachment relationships. This paper reviews recent
findings concerning D (disorganized/disoriented) attachment in infants and its correlates in unresolved parental traumas (quite often, losses through death of significant others). It is proposed that D attachment in infancy may lead to increased vulnerability to dissociative disorders via a linking mechanism proposed by Main and Hesse (1990, 1992): parental frightened and/or frightening behavior. Mothers of dissociative patients were reported much more often than
mothers of other psychiatric patients to have suffered the loss through death of a significant other in the two years before-two years after the patient's birth. This finding supports the hypothesis that many dissociative patients may have been infants attached in a disorganized/disoriented way to at least one attachment figure.
Description
p. 196-204