Attachment Deficiency and Violence

The Nature of Attachments

The existence and quality of early attachments eventually serve as both risk and protective factors, reinforcing the notion that these interactions have a [Page 39]considerable impact on the genesis of a psychopathology. Secure attachments lower the individual's vulnerability for psychological destabilization in handling stressful or negative situations. Attachment deficits have the opposite effect, leading to disturbed attachment behavior. Therefore, attachment deficits are often interpreted as causative factors for aggressive and violent behavioral patterns.

When inadequate coping strategies are internalized due to dysfunctional socialization and attachment experiences, the basic ability to distinguish right from wrong cannot be developed. The result is the misinterpretation of violent actions as an appropriate technique for conflict solving. While attempting to repair the damaged self, the appliance of aggression and violence leads individuals to believe in a false sense of power and control over others and their own lives. This consequently supplies them with a misdirected understanding of the world, enhancing isolation and allowing the outside world to remain a hostile place.

The first attachment theorists, John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth, discussed the connection between early child-parent interactions and later attachment behavior, as well as personality development of the child. Ainsworth, being more empirically based, focused on the psychological availability of the primary caregivers and their sensitivity toward their children's needs. In addition, she conducted a thorough investigation of distinguishable attachment qualities.

Bowlby and Ainsworth had postulated a genetic predisposition for the formation of the first attachment, but not until recently did a new interest in the influence of biochemical interactions arise. Studies investigating increased levels of cortisol in connection with stress in insecure-attached children implied an influential biological component within the complex development of behavioral patterns.

In the International Diagnostic Classification systems (ICD-10) and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV), the attachment phenomenon receives very little recognition as it relates to the connection between attachment deficits and deviant personality development or formation of violent behavioral patterns. In fact, attachment disorders are directly mentioned in only a few categories in either manual.

In the ICD-10, “Disorders of Social Functioning With Onset Specific to Childhood or Adolescence,” unifying the “Reactive Attachment Disorder of Childhood” (F94.1) and the “Disinhibited Attachment Disorder of Childhood” (F94.2), emphasizes attachment issues. The DSM-IV presents the “Reactive Attachment Disorder of Infancy or Early Childhood” (313.89), which recognizes the described dynamics, uniting one inhibited and one disinhibited type. In addition, the “Unsocialized Conduct Disorder” (F91.1) and the “Social Anxiety Disorder of Childhood” (F93.2) can be found in the ICD-10, and the DSM-IV also refers to a “Parent-Child Relational Problem” (V61.20).

...