#esp as im stpd considering if i have npd or aspd traits
Attachmentis the “emotional bond” between a child and their caregiver. It’s relevant to personality disorders since it influences the child’s “capacity to form mature intimate relationships in adulthood”. It “influences and organizes motivational, emotional, and memory processes that involve caregivers”. Attachment is associated with “emotional regulation, social relatedness” and the “developmentofself-reflection and narrative”, all things that are impacted by personality disorders.
Attachment Styles
Attachment styles are made up of two dimensions:
- thedistinction between self and others
- “valence”:positive vs. negative evaluation
Most people will exhibit more than one attachment style.
Thefive stylesare:
- secure:positiveview of self and others
- preoccupied:negativeview of self,positiveview of others
- dismissing:positiveview of self,negativeview of others
- fearful:negativeview of self and others
- disorganized:fluctuatingpositive and negative views of self and others
Preoccupied style: DPD, OCPD & HPD
- Negativeview of self(“a sense of personal unworthiness”)
- Positiveview of others
- Tend to be very “externally oriented in their self-definitions”, i.e. look to others to define them
Dismissing style: SZPD
- Positiveview of self(“a sense of self that is worthyandpositive”)
- Negativeview of others, which “typically manifests as mistrust”
- See themselves as “emotionally self-sufficient”
- See others as emotionally unresponsive
- Therefore they “dismiss the need for friendship and contact with others”
Fearful style: PPD
- Negativeview of selfandothers
- Expectationthat others are untrustworthy & will rejectthem
- Don’t trust themselves orothers
- Believe themselves to be “special and different”
- Hypervigilantagainstthreatsand “unexpected circumstances”
Preoccupied-fearful style: AVPD
- Negativeview of self
- Fluctuatesbetweennegativeandpositiveview of others
- Want to be likedandacceptedbutfear rejection and abandonment, so they avoid and withdraw
Fearful-dismissing style: ASPD, NPD, STPD
- Fluctuatesbetweennegativeandpositiveview of self
- Negativeview of others
- See themselves as “special and entitled”
- Acknowledge their need for others, as well as others’ potential to hurt them
- Use others to meet their needs but are fearfulanddismissingof them
Disorganized style: BPD
- Fluctuatesbetweennegativeandpositiveview of selfandothers
- This style develops from trauma
- Associated with dissociation & PTSD
- Seems to shift among the other attachment styles
- (More on disorganised attachment & dissociation)
- From Sperry, Handbook of Diagnosis and Treatment of DSM-5 Personality Disorders(2016)
