The Meaning of a Home: Decolonizing the Dyad in Developmental Theory, Research, and Clinical Practice

Psychoanalytic developmental theories envision diverse models of infancy, yet betray what Gaztambide (2024), writing from a decolonial perspective, calls a “primarily interpersonal, dyadic logic” (p. 112, emphasis original), theorizing development as essentially about “two people,” foreclosing how early caregiving and the therapeutic relationship are embedded in wider social worlds. This “dyadic default” theorizes within a “two-person” framework that precludes social context, leaving clinicians with questions about whether they should focus on attachment dynamics versus sociocultural context—or emphasize one while neglecting the other. This article works through developmental theory that reflects on both the relational and the sociocultural, making room for communal forms of care (Keller & Chaudhary, 2017), clarifying questions about the sociocultural in clinical work, and shedding light on intervention beyond the therapeutic relationship (González & Peltz, 2021). In effect, its goal is to decolonize the isolated dyad by reembedding development within the wider networks of culture, social systems, and values within which they exist. The article begins by illustrating these tensions in contemporary psychoanalytic theory and then explores research on dyadic and collectivistic modes of caregiving across different cultures, concluding with an integrated account of attachment that makes room for both the relational and the sociocultural in theory and practice.