The Applications of Attachment Theory to Psychotherapy

Narrative coherence, secure attachments and the therapeutic task

Every baby is born into a unique relational environment of attachments and interpersonal histories. This talk considers the power of the inter-generationally transmitted narrative to shape the self. Before we are even conceived, Linda Cundy suggests, we are conceived of. The predictive projections placed on a new infant will bear the hallmarks of the parents’ attachment history, and these narratives, in the minds of both parents, are later enacted in explicit and subtle ways in interaction with the child. Holding in mind that the level of narrative coherence is a measurement of the individual’s attachment security, Linda Cundy skilfully connects the concept of the attachment script that the patient brings into therapy with the potential for revising this. She offers an approach to evoking secure attachment via specific therapeutic techniques that combine object relational insights and psychodynamic psychotherapy with a cognitive or mentalizing task.