Psychoanalysis.  2021 Jul;32(3):65-73. 10.18529/psychoanal.2021.32.3.65.

Development of Attachment Theory and Conflicts with Psychoanalysis: Focused on the History

• Bahn GH

• KMID: 2518830
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.18529/psychoanal.2021.32.3.65

Abstract

Attachment theory explains normal development and psychopathology in humans based on experience and observation. In particular, the development of attachment between mothers and babies can affect the formation of interpersonal relationships in adulthood beyond latency and adolescence, and the transmission through generations. John Bowlby, who founded the theory of attachment, is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. Bowlby was a psychoanalyst certified by the British Psychoanalytical Society, and attachment theory is also rooted in psychoanalysis. In the mid-20th century, Bowlby and orthodox Freudians turned their backs on each other due to theoretical conflicts and factional conflicts between emerging attachment theorists and existing psy-choanalysts. Attachment theorists have developed theories through interdisciplinary exchanges, including Harry Harlow’s ex-periments. The recent decline in the status of psychoanalysis has led to the need for a paradigm shift, thus finding an interface with attachment theory as one of the alternatives. Among the reasons why psychoanalysts are interested in attachment theory is that the findings of infant researchers and developmental theorists help explain the psychoanalytic development theory of chil-dren. Another issue for convergence is that experts in other fields evaluate the results of experiments and observations based on the ethological approach of attachment theorists as scientific. Despite these changes, it will take a lot of effort to converge at-tachment theory and psychoanalysis into a new frame.

Keyword

Attachment theory; Psychoanalysis; Ethology; Strange situation; Frame