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Attachment, the Development of the Self, and Its Pathology in Personality Disorders

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Treatment of Personality Disorders

Abstract

Attachment theory concerns the nature of early experiences of children and the impact of these experiences on aspects of later functioning of particular relevance to personality disorder. The question we attempt to address here is how deprivation, in particular early trauma, comes to affect the individual’s propensity to personality disorder. As part of this question we are naturally also concerned to understand how such adverse consequences may be avoided. The key assumption made by the invoking of attachment theory is that individual social behaviour may be understood in terms of generic mental models of social relationships constructed by the individual. These models, although constantly evolving and subject to modification, are strongly influenced by the child’s experiences with the primary caregivers. Let us now turn to the details of the theory.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sub-Department of Clinical Health Psychology, University College London, UK

    Peter Fonagy (Freud Memorial Professor of Psychoanalysis Director Director of Research, Co-ordinating Director)

  2. Anna Freud Centre Child and Family Centre and Centre for Outcomes Research and Effectiveness, Menninger Foundation, Topeka, Kansas, USA

    Peter Fonagy (Freud Memorial Professor of Psychoanalysis Director Director of Research, Co-ordinating Director)

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  1. Peter Fonagy
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Correspondence to Peter Fonagy .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Jan Derksen

  2. Free University of Brussels, Brussels, Belgium

    Jan Derksen

  3. Vita-Salute San Raffaele University and Scientific Institute San Raffaele, Milan, Italy

    Cesare Maffei

  4. Forensic Psychiatric Institute “Oldenkotte”, Rekker, The Netherlands

    Herman Groen

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Fonagy, P. (1999). Attachment, the Development of the Self, and Its Pathology in Personality Disorders. In: Derksen, J., Maffei, C., Groen, H. (eds) Treatment of Personality Disorders. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-6876-3_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-6876-3_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-3326-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-6876-3

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