Blatt's & Levy's paper provides a broad theoretical matrix concerning the contribution of attachment theory, psychoanalysis and developmental research to personality development, as well as provides a basis for the conceptualization of psychopathology. They also elaborate a fuller developmental perspective in understanding the insecure attachment patterns as they pertain to the psychoanalytic view of mental representations and to Bowlby’s Internal Working Models. Additionally, the authors focus on integrating the multiple polarities that exist in attachment patterns, especially that of separation [autonomy] (avoidant attachment and introjective processes) vs. attachment [connection/relationship] (preoccupied and interpersonal processes), and internal workings models (cognitive vs. developmental), mental representations and psychoanalysis (drives - object-representations).
Specifically, a clinical and research overview is given to demonstrate the polarity concerning the development of personality. Blatt et al suggest as fundamental dimensions in personality development relatedness and self-sufficiency; Freud (1930) the urge toward happiness (egoistic) and the urge toward union (altruistic); Loewald (1962) separation and union; Balint (1959) connectedness (ocnophilic tendency) and self-sufficiency (philobatic tendency), Shor and Sanville (1978) intimacy and autonomy; Adler (1951) discussed the balance between social interest and self-perfection; Rank (1929) both self-and-other-directedness; while Horney (1945,1950) defined personality organization as either moving toward, moving against or away from interpersonal contact. Other non-psychoanalytic personality theorists such as Angyal (1941,1951) discussed surrender and autonomy as two basic personality dispositions. Similarly, Angyal, Bacan (1966) defined communion and agency; McAdams (1980,1985) and others described themes of intimacy and themes of power; Wiggins (1991), agency and communion. Spiegel & Spiegel (1978) noted two basic forces in nature- fusion and fission, integration and differentiation. Most theorists consider relatedness and self-definition as two independent processes, while others consider them as antagonistic or contradictory forces.
The authors -- in accordance with Erikson's epigenetic model of psychosocial development -- propose a dialectic, synergistic interaction between self and others and conceptualized personality development as involving two fundamental parallel developmental lines, the anaclitic or relatedness line and the introjective or self-definitional line. Based on these two lines, they define two distinctly different configurations of psychopathology. The first are the anaclitic psychopathologies which primarily use avoidant defences and involve preoccupation with interpersonal relations, and the second, the introjective pathologies, are primarily concerned with establishing and maintaining a viable sense of self and tend to use counteractive defences.
Several studies have shown that anxious-resistant attachment is associated with an anaclitic/dependent type of depression, while avoidant attachment with an introjective/self-critical type of depression.
[Accordingly, the authors describe two subtypes of Avoidant attachment: the dismissive avoidant and the fearful avoidant, with the latter having more differentiated, complex mental representations and thus are considered to be developmentally more mature; and two types of Ambivalent-resistant: the compulsive care-seeking and the compulsive care-giving.] The disorganized style of attachment is based on Hesse & Main's research. They associated this type with the parental unresolved fear, defining two types of children's behavioral responses: the controlling punitive and the controlling-caregiving. Lyons-Ruth also distinguishes two subtypes of Disorganized attachment resulting from two types of parental behavior: Disorganized Approach have mothers who are helpless-withdrawn [frightened], and Disorganized Avoidant have negative-intrusive hostile [frightening] mothers. There was a history of early trauma in these mothers, physical abuse or witnessing violence in D-Avoid mothers, and sexual abuse or parental loss in D-Approach mothers.
Lastly, Blatt and colleagues -- incorporating psychoanalytic theory, the cognitive developmental perspective of Piaget and Werner, and cognitive-affective components of mental representations for the self and other -- developed scales (The Early Memories Test, the Objects Representation Scale for Dreams, and others) for assessing the development and impairment of self and object representations. Their main goal was to examine the content and structure of mental representations (internal working models) in different types of attachment patterns, concluding that different developmental levels can be identified in the representations of individuals within each type of insecure attachment which offer explanations about the relationship of attachment classifications to various types of psychopathology.
-Ageliki Tsikli, Candidate, TBIPS
Blatt, S.J. and Levy, K.N. (2003). Attachment Theory, Psychoanalysis, Personality Development, and Psychopathology. Psychoanal. Inq., 23(1):102-150
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