Attachment and the archive: barriers and facilitators to the use of historical sociology as complementary developmental science.

Abstract

The thesis of this article is that historical sociology can serve as a complementary source of knowledge for scientific research, and it considers barriers and facilitators to this work through reflections on one project. This project began as a study of the emergence and reception of the infant disorganised attachment classification, introduced in the 1980s by Ainsworth’s student Mary Main, working with Judith Solomon. Elsewhere I have reported on the findings of collaborative work with attachment researchers, without giving full details of how this came about. Here, I will offer personal reflections arising from the process, and my work in what Hasok Chang has called history as ‘complementary science’.