Attachment Theory and Psychoanalysis
The Moment for Repair?
NOW CLOSED
Friday 29 April 2022
A live webinar with Professor Peter Fonagy OBE, Catherine Holland, and Professor Jeremy Holmes
CE Credits: 4 hours
- This event will not be recorded
- Bookings close at 4:00am EDT Tuesday 26 April
Identifying the starting point for the tension between psychoanalysis and attachment theory is complex and to some extent hidden, but to explore this historic friction reveals a fascinating battle of theories that has been a central schism within psychoanalysis: the question of whether intra- or extrapsychic phenomena should be the primary focus of analysis.
READ MORE...John Bowlby was, of course, a psychoanalyst. He trained in an era that was dominated by the Freuds on the one hand and Kleinians on the other. He was also a child psychiatrist and, during WWII, he worked within a child guidance service where he studied the behaviour of maladapted children in relation to their early experiences of caregiving. Here, the first seeds of attachment theory were planted. His observational study into the psychology of these children showed compelling evidence of links between their insecure attachment relationships and challenging behaviour.
Bowlby went on to develop a huge body of work that elaborated and provided empirical evidence for this assertion. Yet, while the value of these insights is so widely embraced today, sections of the psychoanalytic community did not rush to approve. Bowlby’s essentially scientific method was received by many colleagues as an uncomfortable challenge to the intrapsychic approach by privileging the actual relationship. Indeed, so deeply felt was this tension that it still has echoes within our trainings and professional literature, prompting ongoing questions about where attachment theory meets psychoanalysis and where the psychosocial environment is seen as the key to emotional health.
In re-examining this tension, our three speakers will offer distinct but not incompatible ideas about how it might be resolved. On the one hand it will be suggested that neurophysiology, with its insistence on biological reality, conclusively proves the primacy of relationship in relational health. From an alternative perspective, we will consider if it is Relational Psychoanalysis that offers the perfect synthesis between attachment and psychoanalytic schools. Or, alternatively, whether a multi-faceted, integrative theoretical approach inherently dissolves oppositional theoretical positions and allows for the best therapy to occur.
Will this finally conclude the debate, or prompt another?
FULL PROGRAMME
09.00 EDT
Introductions
09.10
Professor Peter Fonagy OBE
Can We Finally Integrate Attachment Theory with Psychoanalysis? A Developmental Neuroscience Perspective
Twenty years ago, we reviewed the relationship of psychoanalysis and attachment theory. Ten years ago we undertook an update of the original points of contact and conflict. Now it is time for another stock-take. Both areas have experienced major shifts: in the geopolitics of psychoanalysis, relational theory and practice has become predominant, while attachment has moved away from its paradigmatic measurement tools to seek neuroscientific understandings in line with Bowlby’s original vision. Perhaps these movements have created an opening where psychoanalysis can meet attachment theory in the domain of (computational) neuroscience. The presentation will explore a final common pathway based on generative models, prediction error and Bayesian computation in relation to the ways that the human mind responds to the social environment and the available social relationships.
10.10
Q&A
10.40
Break
11.00
Professor Jeremy Holmes
Creative conversations in psychotherapy’s common ground
John Bowlby wanted to trigger creative conversations with like-minded psychoanalytic thinkers. Was psychoanalysis open to absorbing the findings of the related disciplines of ethology and child development? Could the search for security sit alongside sex as primary motivators of relational dynamics? To what extent was external trauma responsible for the occurrence and patterns of psychopathology. What he evoked instead – in classic marital disagreement format – was dismissal and counter-challenge. Psychoanalysts saw Bowlby’s emphasis on scientific evidence as missing the essential humanism of their craft; that Ainsworth’s attachment categories were unhelpful in capturing the uniqueness of individual experience and the inner world; and his lack of reverence for the shibboleths of frequent, extended, transference-focussed one-to-one sessions — as opposed to systemic family and couple therapy, and brief therapies – as undermining the very core of their technique.
In my talk I shall try to bring a clinical perspective to this rather outdated debate. I shall suggest that an approach that acknowledges the values of both disciplines has much to contribute to understanding the interpersonal fabric of psychotherapeutic relationships. I shall outline some of these contributions, including how Winnicottian ideas can be welded with evidence on secure and insecure attachment; and how the secure base concept deepens understanding of the therapeutic alliance. More generally, bringing together the utilitarianism of attachment and the virtue ethics of psychoanalysis points the way to truly democratic conversations so missing in our current versions and visions of democracy.
11.45
Q&A
12.00
Break
12.20
Catherine Holland
Moving Beyond Therapeutic Silos
How do we consider the relationship between psychoanalysis and attachment and how do we harvest the gifts that each brings to the therapeutic world? How does the cross pollination of modalities and information emerging from neurophysiological processing impact on therapists and our clients in the clinical space? Catherine will explore the advantages and disadvantages of assimilating attachment based conceptualizations and analytic thinking, illustrating how adaptive synchronicity allows these two orientations to co-exist and shape a congruency that can enhance efficacy. Adults whose relational growth has been compromised by past experience often develop complex mind/body defence structures. Our task in the clinical space is to mindfully use skills, theories and techniques that support sufficient self-awareness and regulation to develop a somatically integrated sense of self. By working with the external stimuli (Porges/Neuroception) of relational connection (Bowlby/Attachment) and the internal perceptions informed by defensive mechanisms (Klein/Psychoanalysis) she will illustrate how timely interweaved, informed surprises help those experiencing ‘disaffection’ (McDougall) to reclaim integrity, identity and relational growth.
13.05
Q&A
13.20
Q&A with Professor Jeremy Holmes and Catherine Holland
13.45
End
FEES (USD)
Bookings close at 4:00am EDT Tuesday 26 April
Live Webinar:
$110 (Member $55)
(Click here to become a member)
CE
This event is accredited by:
- NBCC
Certificates of attendance for 4 hours will be provided.
To receive the full CE credits, you are required to attend 100% of the live event. No partial credit will be given.
This event is NOT accredited by the following organisations:
- ASWB
- NYSED (Psychology)
- NYSED (Psychoanalysis)
- NYSED (Social Workers)
Please note, that this event is not being recorded and no CE test post event will be available and so you will need to attend all of the live event to receive the CE certificate.
Please contact events@conferonline.org for any further questions.
Confer has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7136. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Confer is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
VENUE
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SCHEDULE
Friday
09.00 EDT Introductions
09.10 Professor Peter Fonagy OBE
10.10 Q&A
10.40 Break
11.00 Judy Yellin
11.45 Q&A
12.00 Break
12.20 Catherine Holland
13.05 Q&A
13.20 Q&A with Professor Jeremy Holmes and Catherine Holland
13.45 End
CONTENT LEVEL
- Intermediate
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
- Describe the historical context and friction between schools of psychoanalytic thought and attachment theory.
- Explore the connections and similarities between relational psychoanalysis and attachment theory.
- Compare the advantages and disadvantages of assimilating modalities.
- Outline and critique the theories of John Bowlby, with reference to recent findings in neuroscience.
TARGET
AUDIENCE
- Psychologists
- Counselors
- Social Workers
- Psychotherapists
- Addiction Professionals
- Marriage and Family Therapists
- Psychiatrists
- Other related mental health professions.
BOOKING CONDITIONS
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