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In this paper, I will attempt to describe a type of psychopathological outcome in adult life which, in my view, stems from a failure in attachment in infancy. Before doing so, I would like to present my view of attachment theory and put it into perspective with other developmental theories.
One aspect of the human condition is the need to create order out of chaos. In this respect behavioral scientists are particularly skillful. We attempt to categorize certain behaviors and events and apply labels to make them easier for mental storage. The result has been that super-specialists trained in the study of human behavior follow such divergent paths that they can barely speak to one another in communicable language. The lack of a unified developmental theory has long plagued child psychiatrists. Although it is taken for granted in all theories of development that early experience determines adult behavior, the hypothetical constructs which give rise to the various paradigms differ widely. The “nature versus nurture” argument is at the core of the differing conceptual viewpoints. There is much disagreement about how biological and environmental influences shape development.
The stimulus-response psychology from Aristotle through Pavlov and Thorndyke to Watson, Skinner, and Bandura shares a fundamental view of the infant as a tabula rasa upon which all subsequent sensory impressions are written (1). Watson (2) believed that environment was all. “Give me a dozen healthy infants … and I will guarantee to take anyone at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select” (despite their talents, abilities, or ancestors). Basic assumptions are made about behavioral