Attachment, Recognition, and Secondary Trauma: Reply to Commentaries

Abstract

This response first addresses the interimplication of attachment and recognition in couples work and reargues that disorganized attachment is the central dynamic underlying the emotional torment of failing relationships. In the second section, the author expands upon the secondary trauma that haunts the therapist who is trying to hold and contain the destructiveness that couples “on the brink” can enact.

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Notes on contributors

Virginia Goldner

Virginia Goldner, Ph.D., is Adjunct Clinical Professor of Psychology, NYU Post-doctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis; Faculty, Stephen Mitchell Center for Relational Studies; and Senior Faculty Emeritus at the Ackerman Institute for the Family. She is the Founding Editor of the journal Studies in Gender and Sexuality, an Associate Editor of Psychoanalytic Dialogues, and a Founding Board member of the International Association of Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. Dr. Goldner is the co-Editor, with Muriel Dimen, of Gender in Psychoanalytic Space, and with Mary Gail Frawley O’Dea of Predatory Priests: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church. The author of more than 50 publications, she is completing a book on gender and relationality.