Attachment, information processing, and psychiatric disorder.

Attachment theory is a theory about protection from danger and the need to find a reproductive partner (1-4). As a theory of psychopathology, it is concerned with the effects of exposure to danger and the failure to find a satisfying reproductive relationship on mental and behavioral functioning. When these effects extend far beyond the threatening circumstances themselves, they can be considered psychopathological. Attachment theory is also a developmental theory. Thus, unlike other theories of psychological disorder, it traces individuals’ developmental pathways from infancy to adulthood. Indeed, most of the work on attachment has been done in infancy and early childhood, thus providing a sound developmental base from which to understand later pathology. In addition, the developmental emphasis permits a focus on the interactive outcomes of maturational processes, individual differences in genetic inheritance, and individual differences in experience. The outcomes are individuals’ strategies for protecting the self and progeny and for seeking a reproductive partner. These strategies, i.e., the patterns of attachment, provide both a description of interpersonal behavior and a functional system for diagnosing psychopathology. This perspective offers several advantages for the understanding of psychopathology.