Rapprochement or Approchement: Mahler's Theory Reconsidered From the Vantage Point of Recent Research on Early Attachment Relationships

Mahler speculated that the normal developmental process of separation-individuation led young toddlers to experience ambivalence when needing comforting contact with a caregiver. She labeled this period of characteristic ambivalence the rapprochement subphase of the separation-individuation process, roughly spanning the developmental period from 15 to 24 months of age. Researchers observing mother–infant relationships from an attachment perspective have also noted the ambivalent behaviors described by Mahler, as well as a range of other conflict behaviors that become increasingly prominent after 12 months of age. However, recent work on attachment relationships indicates that ambivalent behavior and other forms of conflict behavior centered around the need for comforting contact with mother in early toddlerhood are more likely to be related to difficulties in parent-infant interaction than to normative ambivalence related to a “fear of reengulfment,” with more conspicuous forms of infant conflict related to the presence of maternal psychopathology. The attachment literature leading to this conclusion is reviewed, including new work on disorganized/disoriented infant attachment behaviors, and recent longitudinal studies of the sequelae of early attachment patterns through age 6. Revisions in the existing framework of object-relations theory are proposed to encompass the new developmental data.