Attachment & Disrupted Attachment
Attachment: The Human Operating System
The social nature of our brains is hard-wired, on-line at the time of birth. Newborns begin imitating facial gestures when they are only minutes old so early imitation is not about learning – it is innate. Autobiographical memory – the memory that we use all the time once we enter childhood – when we know where we are, who we are with, what we are doing and thinking – does not function when we are born. A vital structure in the brain, the hippocampus, must mature before we can integrate all these different pieces of memory into a whole which begin as separate elements. Because emotions are so vital to our ability to our ability to respond to danger, emotional memory, is with us at birth, controlled largely by another structure called the amygdala. Even before we have names for things, we are remembering important experiences that aroused significant emotions [1]. Every negative and positive experience with our primary attachment figures is creating an emotional worldview that colors how we see the world, what our expectations are of other people, whether the world is a good place or a bad place, long before we have words to explain any of this. These early experiences can likewise color the experiences and interpretations of the adults we ultimately become and that has significant impact on our home lives and our work lives
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Some researchers believe that it is this ability to imitate that is the moving force differentiating humans from all other species [2] and this is the basis for why we call attachment the Human Operating System or what attachment researchers’ “grandfather” John Bowlby called the “internal working model”. Since World War II, attachment scientists have laid the scientific groundwork for understanding how we become human in the intricate dance that goes on in infancy and early childhood between children and caregivers, setting the patterns we are likely to follow for the rest of our lives. Bowlby and many other attachment researchers have said that the internal working model forms the basis of each person’s personality the “rough-and-ready blueprints for what should be expected and what is likely to occur in different kinds of interactions with attachment figures (p.7) [3]. These early attachment experiences then determine how one views the lovability and worthiness of the self, what it means to be cared for and care about others, what to pay attention to and what to forget, how to manage emotions and how to behave, what to expect from other people [4-6].
Thanks to the work of John Bowlby, Mary Ainsworth, Mary Main, and many others, we now have a framework for understanding how the sense of individual self emerges out of the transactions between the individual and others, how the self and social development are inextricably bound together [6-10]. Human social life originates with the evolution of parental care and the mother-infant bond. The behavior between mother and infant, and later between father and infant, is the foundation stone for adult bonding, friendliness, and love - all of which are at the heart of social organization [11].
Disrupted attachment
To understand the profound impact of trauma and adversity, we need to understand the way in which trauma disturbs the Human Operating System by disrupting attachment relationships. As we mentioned in the Introduction, a computer virus is a small piece of software that piggybacks on real programs. Each time the program runs, the virus has a chance to spread and to wreak havoc on the entire computer. It is contagious, virulent, hard to diagnose, unpredictable, may shut the whole system down or have peculiar and individual affects, is difficult to treat, may masquerade as other things, and like so much violence it is self-replicating, with no other purpose then to create more violence. Trauma and adversity create toxic stress and particularly when this begins in childhood it does to the Human Operating System what a computer virus does to the computer operating system. It wrecks havoc unpredictably, contagiously, virulently with the attachment system and spreads through intergenerational contagion. Trauma disrupts attachment.
Because children are dependent on their caretakers for safety and the fulfillment of their basic needs, any traumatic situation has the potential to disrupt the child's primary attachments and sense of basic trust. This disruption is particularly profound when the source of the trauma is the primary caretaker. Mary Ainsworth and her colleagues have taken advantage of normal stranger anxiety to discover the different ways in which children attach to their caregivers [9]. The typical patterns of normal attachment are well-organized and consistent over time with that particular caregiver although the pattern may be quite different with a different caretaker. Longitudinal research has begun to show that these patterns of attachment are predictive of a child’s behavior in school, at home, and in social situations to at least to the tenth year.
Considerable evidence suggests that an individual’s relationship history is an important variable determining parental behavior [12]. A child’s attachment style is also consistent with future parenting characteristics and parental attachment style [13]. In other words, we tend to raise our children similarly to the way we were raised. This does not mean that maltreated children inevitably maltreat their children in the same way, but the risk of doing so is disturbing. What can be repeated, down through the generations, are attachment styles that become organizing themes of relationships.
Children’s brains are still forming. The release of powerful neurohormones, particularly during critical and sensitive moments in development, is thought to have such a profound impact on the developing brain that the brain may organize itself around the traumatic event. Sustained or frequent activation of the hormonal systems that respond to stress can have serious developmental consequences, some of which may last well past the time of stress exposure. For example, when children experience toxic stress, their cortisol levels remain elevated for prolonged periods of time. Both animal and human studies show that long-term elevations in cortisol levels can alter the function of a number of neural systems, and even change the architecture of regions in the brain that are essential for learning and memory (p.3) [14].
We are only beginning to understand how the effects of chronic stress set the stage for long-term physical as well as emotional and social problems [15-16]. Epigenetic research is demonstrating that environmental factors, including exposure to toxic stress, may influence gene expression and thereby extend the effects of stress through the generations. “Animal studies have shown that the quality of the mother-infant relationship can influence gene expression in areas of the brain that regulate social and emotional function and can even lead to changes in brain structure. The nature of the relationship also can have long-term influences (into adulthood) on how the body copes with stress, both physically and emotionally” (p.3) [17].
Disorganized Attachment
Mary Ainsworth and her colleagues have taken advantage of normal stranger anxiety to discover the different ways in which children attach to their caregivers (Ainsworth et al. 1978). The typical patterns of normal attachment are well-organized and consistent over time with that particular caregiver although the pattern may be quite different with a different caretaker. Longitudinal research has begun to show that these patterns of attachment are predictive of a child’s behavior in school, at home, and in social situations to at least to the tenth year. A child’s attachment style is also consistent with parenting characteristics and parental attachment style [13].
The attachment style of the greatest concern related to a past history of trauma has been called the disorganized/disoriented attachment [18]. This style is characterized by a lack of coherent strategy of relating to the caregiver. The behavior of these children is inconsistent and contradictory without the usual sequencing of behavior and with the addition of quite unusual behaviors such as freezing and hand flapping. These children appear to be caught in dilemma - their attachment figure is also the source of fear. They respond to this conflict with mental, emotional, and behavioral disorganization and confusion. This style of attachment has been found to be highly correlated with parents who have unresolved traumatic loss in their own backgrounds. The parent’s state of continuing fear and the behavioral components of this fear state frighten the child [18].
Intergenerational Transmission
This last disturbed attachment relationship paves the way for what we call “trauma-bonding” and is probably how the multigenerational transmission of traumatic experience actually happens. Considerable evidence suggests that an individual’s relationship history is an important variable determining parental behavior [12]. In other words, we tend to raise our children similarly to the way we were raised. This does not mean that maltreated children inevitably maltreat their children in the same way. Only a relatively small percentage do. But what can be repeated, down through the generations, are attachment styles that become organizing themes of relationships.
Excerpt from Creating Sanctuary: Toward the Evolution of Sane Societies.
Attachment and Betrayal Trauma
Intergenerational Transmission
References
- Moskowitz, A., et al., Delusion atmosphere, the psychotic prodrome, and decontextualized memories, in Psychosis, Trauma and Dissociation: Emerging Perspectives on Severe Psychopathology, A. Moskowitz, I. Schäfer, and M.J. Dorahy, Editors. 2008, John Wiley & Sons: New York. p. 65-78.
- Blackmore, S., The Meme Machine. 1999, London: Oxford University Press.
- Rholes, W.S. and J.A. Simpson, eds. Adult Attachment: Theory, Research and Clinical Implications. 2004, Guildford: New York.
- Howe, D., et al., Attachment Theory, Child Maltreatment and Family Support: A Practice and Assessment Model. 1999, London: Macmillan.
- Bowlby, J., Attachment and loss, Volume III: Loss, sadness and depression. 1980.
- Bowlby, J., A Secure Base: Parent-Child Attachment and Healthy Human Development. 1988, New York: Basic Books.
- Stern, D., The interpersonal world of the infant. 1985, New York: Basic Books.
- Main, M., N. Kaplan, and J. Cassidy, Security in infancy, childhood, and adulthood: A move to the level of representation.. in Growing Points of Attachment Theory and Research : Monograph of the Society for Research in Child Development, I. Bretherton and E. Waters, Editors. 1985. p. 66-104.
- Ainsworth, M.D.S., et al., Patterns of Attachment A Psychological Study of the Strange Situation. 1978, Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
- Cicchetti, D.P. and S.L. Toth, A Developmental Psychopathology Perspective on Child Abuse and Neglect. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry May 1995;34(5):541-565.
- Eibl-Eibesfeldt, I., Human Ethology. 1989, New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
- Zeanah, C.H. and P.D. Zeanah, Intergenerational transmission of maltreatment: insights from attachment theory and research. Psychiatry, 1989. 52(2): p. 177-96.
- Berman, W.H. and M.B. Sperling, The structure and function of adult attachment, in Attachment in Adults: Clinical and Developmental Perspectives., M.B. Sperling and W.H. Berman, Editors. 1994, Guilford: New York.
- National Scientific Council on the Developing Chilld, Excessive Stress Disrupts the Architecture of the Developing Brain. (2005). Working Paper No. 3. , Summer, Retrieved August 20, 2008 from http://www.developingchild.net. 2005.
- Perry, B.D. and M. Szalavitz, The Boy Who Was Raised As a Dog: What Traumatized Children Can Teach Us About Loss, Love, and Healing. 2006, New York: Basic Books.
- Felitti, V.J., et al., Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults. The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study. Am J Prev Med, 1998. 14(4): p. 245-58.
- National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, Young Children Develop in an Environment of Relationships. Working Paper No.1, Summer, Retrieved August 20, 2008 from www.developingchild.net. 2004.
- Main, M. and E. Hess, Parents' unresolved traumatic experiences are related to infant disorganized attachment status: is frightened and/or frightening parental behavior the linking mechanism?. in Attachment In The Preschool Years: Theory, Research, And Intervention, M.T. Greenberg, D. Cicchetti, and E. Cummings, Editors. 1990, University of Chicago Press: Chicago. p. 161-182.
