Loss and Disorganization from an Attachment Perspective

Abstract

In this article, it is hypothesized that disorganizing, disorienting, and unresolved states of mind about loss experiences, as classified by the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) coding system, may offer insight into the bereaved mind and may guide clinical treatment approaches. This article discusses pre-loss attachment organizations and the disorganizing/disorienting markers of unresolved loss found in the AAI. Although sometimes subtle in nature, the unresolved, disorganized, and disorienting indices—defined as lapses in monitoring of reason, discourse and behavior—provide concrete markers for assessing the degree of resolution for loss experiences. An attachment-based grief treatment model can add to existing models implemented in prolonged grief disorder treatment.

Special thanks to California State University, Northridge, Department of Kinesiology; members of the research team: S. Victoria Jaque, E. B. Keehn, Thomas Gumpel and Kelly Forrest, and generous advisement from Maurice Godin, Erik Hesse, Mary Main, Jessica Rawles, Allan Schore, Wanda Thomson, and all the participants who completed the Adult Attachment Interview thus far for this research study. And lastly, thank you to the many brave patients who openly shared their profound grief in a time when life felt meaningless and death was welcomed as an opportunity to join their loved one and leave behind the futility of mortality.

Notes

¹Approval by the Office of Research Human Subjects Review Protocol at California State University, Northridge, is granted to this ongoing research project. Data has been collected from a population of elite performing artists (United States, Canada, South Africa, and Europe), elite athletes (United States, Canada, and Europe), and patients suffering from psychiatric and functional disorders. This multivariate research design involves researchers from diverse disciplines (genetics, exercise physiology, psychology, and psychophysiology). All participants completed informed consents, including granting consent for excerpted verbatim citations drawn from their Adult Attachment Interview to be presented at professional conferences or in scholarly journals. All personal indicators have been removed from the transcript citations. Dr. Paula Thomson is a highly reliable coder of the Adult Attachment Interview and received her training from Mary Main, Erik Hesse, Sonia Gojman de Milan, June Sroufe, and Kazuko Behrens. Training in the Infant Attachment Assessment was given by Alan Sroufe and Betsy Carlson.