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Attachment & Human Development 5(1), 78-93, 2003
The impact of a therapist's planned medical break is described and discussed, using attachment theory. The break is compared to Ainsworth's strange situation test and the responses of patients with avoidant, ambivalent and disorganized patterns of attachment are explored. The paper examines patients' responses at the point where news of the break is given and on reunion and looks at communication through breaks in the frame. An overview is given of the understanding of separation and loss in broader analytic theory and the ways in which these complement Bowlby's theory. The clinical cases are reviewed in the light of several authors.
Attachment & Human Development 5(2), 97-119, 2003
This article offers a developmental model of attachment theory rooted in dynamic skill theory. Dynamic skill theory is based on the assumption that people do not have integrated, fundamentally logical minds, but instead develop along naturally fractionated strands of a web. Contrary to traditional interpretations of attachment theory, dynamic skill theory proposes that individuals continue to modify their working models of attachments throughout the lifespan. In particular, working models of close relationships develop systematically through a series of skill levels such that the skills vary across strands in the web and will not automatically form a unified whole. The continual modification of working models is particularly pertinent for the consequences of hidden family violence for individuals' development. Dynamic skill theory shows how trauma can produce not developmental delay or fixation, as has been proposed previously, but instead the construction of advanced, complex working models.