Overview Course: Attachment and Psychopathology

This 5-day course introduces the Dynamic-Maturational Model (DMM) of attachment and ties it to risk assessment and treatment. The DMM differs from the usual ABC plus “disorganization” model of attachment by (1) focusing on differences within the risk group, (2) highlighting a strengths approach to working with parents and children at risk, and (3) presuming that maturation and development increase individuals’ potential for adaptation

The course describes an array of patterns of attachment relationships and strategies for self-protection. The course focuses on development from infancy to adulthood (including old age). It emphasizes the process of adaptation and those developmental pathways that carry risk for psychopathology. At each age, the approaches to prevention and treatment are considered.

The model used is Crittenden’s expansion of the Bowlby-Ainsworth model to ages beyond infancy, i.e., the Dynamic-Maturational Model of attachment relationships. The DMM is particularly relevant to individuals who are in at-risk situations, have been exposed to danger, display disturbed or maladaptive behavior, or are diagnosed as having a psychiatric disorder. The course is also relevant to longitudinal approaches to attachment, to the development of emotional and behavioral disorder, and to cross-generational issues. A particular emphasis in the course is cultural influences on the distribution of the patterns.

The course is structured developmentally and consists of lecture with overheads, videotapes, slides, and interview transcripts to demonstrate the patterns and principles of development. A set of readings and exercises, tied to each day’s material, are offered. In addition, an introduction is given to each of the assessments of pattern of attachment that use the dynamic-maturational method. These include the CARE-Index (infancy from birth to 24 months), the Ainsworth Strange Situation (11-15 months), the Preschool Assessment of Attachment (21 months - 5 years), the School-age Assessment of Attachment (6-13 years), Family Drawings (4-13 years), Transition to Adulthood Attachment Interview (16-25 years), and the Adult Attachment Interview (25 years and older).

Day 1:

AM Evolution, danger and brain
Infancy

PM CARE - Index videotapes
Cultural influences
Treatment implications

Day 2:

AM The Ainsworth patterns of attachment
Ainsworth Infant Strange Situation (SSP) videotapes

PM Preschool development and the dynamic-maturational expansion of the Ainsworth model
The organization of the coercive strategy and compulsive subpatterns

Cross-generational transformations
Treatment implications in infancy and the preschool years

Day 3:

AM Preschool Assessment of Attachment (PAA) videotapes

PM School-age development and the organization of obsessive and deceptive strategies
Family drawings
School-age Assessment of Attachment (SAA)
Treatment implications from 6 years to puberty

Day 4:

AM Adolescent development and the integration of sexuality with attachment
Transition to Adulthood Attachment Interview (TAAI)
Treatment in adolescence and the transition to adulthood

PM Development in adulthood including becoming an attachment figure to one’s spouse, children, and parents
Adult Attachment Interviews (AAI) transcript with corresponding videotape
Treatment in a marital and familial context

Day 5:

AM An overview of adult psychopathology
PM An summation and theoretical perspective on attachment-informed treatment


Language: This course is offered in English with English materials. A corresponding course is available in Italian with Italian materials. The course is being developed in Spanish. Courses insuccessive translation necessarily take longer or cover less material.

The four figures below provide a model of the increasing array of possible strategies that individuals may use at varied periods of development. (Click each model for a larger version.)