Bad Blood Revisited: Attachment and Psychoanalysis, 2015

Abstract

This article attempts to trace the intellectual history of the relationship between attachment theory and psychoanalytic thinking, and considers where we are now in the discourse between the two fields. We describe some of the points of convergence, as well as areas of continuing contention, and suggest future directions for attachment work which have a bearing on its relationship with psychoanalysis. In particular, mentalizing theory is discussed as a line of thinking that draws on both attachment ideas and psychoanalysis; recent developments in mentalizing are described within an argument about the future development of attachment thinking. Two constructs connected to attachment and mentalizing, epistemic trust and the concept of a general factor in psychopathology, are discussed along with the implications of these ideas for thinking about the common factors that effective psychotherapeutic interventions share.

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