REACTIVE ATTACHMENT DISORDER

Attachment

John Bowlby defined attachment as the affectional tie between two people. It begins with the bond between the infant and mother. This bond becomes internally representative of how the child will form relationships with the world. Bowlby stated "the initial relationship between self and others serves as blueprints for all future relationships." (Bowlby, 1975) Recent findings from the field of neuroscience are revealing deeper dynamics to the attachment phenomenon. What has been proposed as attachment theory may in fact be more closely defined as a regulatory theory. In attachment transactions the secure mother is continuously regulating (calming) the baby’s shifting arousal levels and therefore emotional states (Schore, 2001). It is the prolonged state of calm functioning and effective parental soothing in the face of stressful events, which leads to the child's ability to develop self-regulating capabilities. Such capabilities are necessary for forming healthy and significant future relationships. In other words, the ability to self-regulate and be regulated is a prerequisite to the ability to form healthy attachments. (Post,2001). Attachment can thus be defined as the dyadic regulation of emotion (Sroufe, 1996). This new view of attachment functioning creates an entirely different approach to understanding the child with attachment disorder.

Attachment | The Stress Response
Symptoms of RAD | Potential causes of RAD