The Two-Person Construction of Defenses: Disorganized Attachment Strategies, Unintegrated Mental States, and Hostjle/Helpless Relational Processes.

Top Parental Affective Communication Patterns Related to Infant Disorganization Hostile or Helpless Profiles of Parenting Understanding Intergenerational Cycles: The Developmental Emergence of Controlling Forms of Attachment Behavior Hostile/Helpless Internal Working Models of Relationships Conclusion References Since the initial identification of disorganized and controlling forms of attachment behavior 15 years ago, the accumulated findings of attachment research have also contributed to the paradigm shift in psychoanalytic thinking toward a more fully relational theory and model of treatment. This research report will provide an overview of recent work charting the developmental pathways and family processes associated with disorganized forms of attachment behaviors in infancy. These research findings both converge with and expand on earlier less systematic analytic clinical observations which have variously described inconsistency or role reversal or coercive discipline in the parenting behaviors of parents of clinically referred children.