Attachment: A True Psychosocial Model - Essay Example

Running head: 'Attachment offers us a true psychosocial model'. Do you agree Attachment: A True Psychosocial Model __________________________ Attachment Theory according to John Bowlby states that humans are psychologically motivated by the need for attachment to others. Attachment theory upholds that our survival is linked to and dependent upon the capacity to establish and maintain emotional ties to others. The four basic assumptions of attachment theory have been robustly supported by observational research that helps us understand the fundamental and enduring influence parents, in one generation, have upon the next generations. (Green, 2003, p. 87) The four assumptions which convey the essence of Bowlby's attachment theory are as follows: 1. Attachment is based on emotional bond that holds a primary status in a person's life. 2. Attachment has a powerful influence on an individual's perceptional development and later personality functioning. 3. Attachment behaviour is to be viewed as part of an organisational system which utilises the notion of an 'internal working model' of self and other to guide expectation and the planning of behaviour. 4. Attachment behaviour is resistant to change, but there is a continuing potential for change so that at no time in a person's life are they impermeable to adversity or to favourable influence. (Green, 2003, p. 87) For Bowlby, our survival as individuals and as the human species depends upon the ability to establish and maintain emotional ties to others. Therefore attachment theory in the simplest form helps an individual to imitate various behaviours from his social circle of friends. Melanie Klein does not support attachment theory as a social human behaviour. She views attachment as "a depressive position of the unconscious". (Fordham & Hobdell, 1998, p. 41) Types of Attachment There are two types of possible attachment, positive and negative or secure and insecure attachment. Secure attachment is an internal source of strength that may help an individual to positively analyse the stressful experiences, to constructively confront to these events, and to improve his or her well-being and adjustment. In contrast, insecure attachment, either avoidant or anxious, can be viewed as a potential risk factor, leading to lack of confidence to confront and to maladjustment. (Rholes & Simpson, 1998, p. 143) In the light of positive and negative aspects, the individual ignores many key facts behind building such relationships. For example, Jane aged 18 lives with her mother and step father and she feels that she is ignored by both of them. Although she loves her mother, but she thinks she is of no importance to them. At the same time, she is good at achieving grades. So, she is seeking a friend who helps her get out of this psychological distress of being ignored. She meets Susan, and they became friends. Gradually, Susan has diverted her towards drug abuse and now Jane is a regular Cocaine user. Jane is now dependant on Susan for she has given up to personal struggles. This ofcourse is a negative outcome of 'attachment' which has affected Jane. Attachment theory cannot be defined without psychological or emotional reasoning. An individual subjected to 'attachment' entirely depends upon the relationship, which he builds. It is however not necessary that the individual who is subjected to any kind of 'attachment' suffers a mental or psychopathological disorder. Such individual can be of any age irrespective of gender, provided he is going through a psychological distress. Such distress emphasise upon a supportive relationship for the individual in order to succumb to the social changes around him. This individual being a 'Psychosocial model' with the help of emotional attachment builds any relationship. The main dilemma behind a psychosocial model lies with the notion that it is not necessary that this relationship holds positive results for him. The outcome of carrying such relationship can be destructive. Attachment as a Psychosocial Model The question is why attachment is regarded as a psychosocial model Is it because it pursues a person to build and remain in boundaries or is it so because it disagrees with the 'psychoanalytic' notion which suggests that an individual should strive for an identity, thereby being independent and confident. In this context it relates to the 'Jungian Psychology' by Carl Jung who was the first to attempt validation of the findings of psychoanalysis by using test procedures. (Fordham & Hobdell, 1998, p. 81) Jungian Psychology contradicts with the psychosocial model and believes that individual encounters experiences in the form of umpteen motivations lying deep in the human nature. It does not favour 'attachment' with any external force rather it attaches the individual with its inner forces. These inner forces lead an individual towards success and motivation and does not allow an individual to get engaged in any sort of 'attachment'. Whereas 'attachment theory' simply bounds a person to imitate, therefore it is viewed as a psychosocial model. Psychosocial model, no doubt disagrees with the psychoanalytic conceptions. In this case let us consider an example of 'myth'. Freud's view of the myth of Paradise is "Paradise is nothing but the collective fantasy of each individual's infancy" (Rholes & Jeffrey, 1998, p. 181). The argument is inconclusive, however. The existence of fantasies that are based on infancy does not prove that there was once an era when all fantasies were infantile. Importance of Attachment in Adulthood Bowlby stated in 1979, "Attachment processes affect human beings from the cradle to the grave". (Bowlby, 1979, p. 129) It is possible that adults' sense of frustration or stress along with the lack of a sense of permanence and support provided by secure attachment bonds may impair their ability to put the distress behind them. In the case of avoidant persons, such experiences may lead to working models that emphasise the threatening and untrustworthy nature of significant others, the need to rely exclusively on oneself, and the importance of maintaining distance from attachment figures and relationships, which may cause distress. Although these avoidant strategies may reduce overt expressions of distress, they may unable in the long run to mitigate internalised sources of attachment insecurity and pain. Attachment in adulthood leads towards romantic relationships. Stress and anxiety holds vitality in eliciting attachment behavior in adulthood. Attachment theory of adults' proposes that attachment behavior is most likely to be activated under conditions of stress or threat. The research focuses on the link between attachment and what will be referred to as 'relationship-centered anxiety' that is, anxiety stemming from absence or discouraging of proximity on the part of attachment figures. (Rholes & Simpson, 1998, p. 190) Adults' attachment if pursued by 'insecure attachment' causes devastation in the life of an adult. The best example in this case is those adults who are subjected to drug abuse. The critique of Attachment Theory Attachment theory developed out of the tensions over certain key issues in psychoanalysis, which were similar to those which had caused the rift between Freud and Jung so many years earlier. On one hand Jung severely disagrees by John Bowlby, the originator of attachment theory, due to the perception that attachment theory does not let an individual to live with its own freewill along with the society. On the other, Klein criticises and blames attachment theory for not letting a person build his ego. (Klein worked on ego psychology and the accommodation of psychoanalysis to 'scientific' disciplines) (Fordham & Hobdell, 1998, p. 214) According to Know, (2003) "Bowlby became particularly critical of the Kleinian model, which placed instinctual drive theory at the heart of psychoanalysis and which postulated that complex unconscious phantasy could arise in the earliest months of infancy as a direct expression of the libido or of the death instinct. Bowlby felt that this was a view which seemed to render the environment virtually insignificant in its contribution to the formation of psychic contents". (Knox, 2003, p. 6). The psychoanalytic model of instinctual drives, originally propounded by Freud and emphasized by Klein, gives us an easy answer by proposing that the external reality is relatively unimportant and that any internal object arises as a direct expression of the 'life' and 'death' instincts. Thus Melanie Klein said that 'the child anticipates, by reason of his own cannibalistic and sadistic impulses, such punishment as being cut into pieces, eaten up, etc. and lives in perpetual dread of them' (Klein, 1980). According to one of her closest supporters, Joan Riviere, "psychoanalysis is Freud's discovery of what goes on in the imagination, it has no concern with anything else, it is not concerned with the real world" (Knox, 2003, p. 119). However, attachment theory offers us a very different way of conceptualising fantasy, based upon the key features of the internal working model and the defensive processes of an individual. Unfortunately, Bowlby himself did not really investigate the concept of fantasy because he saw it as inextricably a part of the Kleinian model with its focus on instinctual drive as the source of fantasy. Bowlby took great pains to convey his firm and passionate conviction that real-life experience plays a key role in the creation of psychological distress and psychopathology and remained critical throughout his life of psychoanalysts who attributed these phenomena to the distortions produced by unconscious delusions. (Knox, 2003, p. 120). The psychoanalyst, who uncovered the inner world and what Jungians should call manifestations of the self, was Melanie Klein. It is apparent that all she says implies the self but, though she uses the term from time to time, she does not make use of the concept. She illustrates the fact that if we keep too close to 'attachment' terminology then a lot and even the most important work may get overlooked. (Fordham & Hobdell, 1998, p. 259) References & Bibliography Bowlby, J. (1979). The making and breaking of affectional bonds. London: Tavistock. Fordham Michael & Hobdell Roger, (1998) Freud, Jung, Klein - The Fenceless Field: Essays on Psychoanalysis and Analytical Psychology: Routledge: London. Green Viviane, (2003) Emotional Development in Psychoanalysis, Attachment Theory, and Neuroscience: Creating Connections: Brunner-Routledge: Hove, England. Klein, M. (1980) The Psychoanalysis of Children, in "The Writings of Melanie Klein 2", London: Hogarth. Knox Jean, (2003) Archetype, Attachment, Analysis: Jungian Psychology and the Emergent Mind: Brunner-Routledge: New York. Rholes W. Steven & Simpson A. Jeffry, (1998) Attachment Theory and Close Relationships: Guilford Press: New York. Read More