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Towards an architecture of attachment disorganization: John Bowlby’s published and unpublished reflections

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Solomon, J 
Duschinsky, RN 
Schuengel, C 

Abstract

This article examines the construct of disorganized attachment originally proposed by Main and Solomon (1990), developing some new conjectures based on inspiration from a largely-unknown source: John Bowlby’s unpublished texts, housed at the Wellcome Trust Library Archive in London (with permission from the Bowlby family). We explore Bowlby’s discussions of disorganized attachment, which he understood from the perspective of ethological theories of conflict behavior. Bowlby’s reflections regarding differences among the behaviors used to code disorganized attachment will be used to explore distinctions that may underlie the structure of the current coding system. The article closes with an emphasis on the importance Bowlby placed on Popper’s distinction between the context of discovery and the context of justification in developmental science.

Description

Keywords

Attachment, Bowlby, conflict behavior, disorganization, fear, Animals, Conflict, Psychological, Humans, Infant, Infant Behavior, Object Attachment, Reactive Attachment Disorder

Journal Title

Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1359-1045
1461-7021

Volume Title

22

Publisher

SAGE Publications
Sponsorship
Wellcome Trust (103343/Z/13/A)
Wellcome Trust (208155/Z/17/Z)
Wellcome Grants WT103343MA and 208155/Z/17/Z