Inducing traumatic attachment in adults with a history of child abuse: forensic applications

Abstract

Childhood trauma is very likely to produce ill‐health and psychiatric disorder in adulthood. The paper discusses attachment theory and various forms of insecure attachment to the parent/caregiver, particularly disorganised attachment behaviour and the traumatic attachment response. Eliciting the (usually hidden) traumatic attachment in adults can give access to the patient's representational models of their parents, allowing a basis for treatment of disorders. The paper describes and illustrates the use of the TAIT technique for eliciting such models.

Citation

de Zulueta, F. (2006), "Inducing traumatic attachment in adults with a history of child abuse: forensic applications", The British Journal of Forensic Practice, Vol. 8 No. 3, pp. 4-15. https://doi.org/10.1108/14636646200600015