Evolution ,Attachment theory and Trauma

How impactful attachment can be in familial relationships, from infancy to adulthood?

Theorists and scholars argue that the family is a fundamental structure of identity formation.

Attachment theory has been used to explore and understand how individuals behave socially, the importance attachment plays in the formation of a healthy psyche and how determinant is in becoming a productive and competent member of society. Attachment contemporarily represents an area of psychology which gains substantial interest from researchers and theorists, constantly developing new concepts and theories, some aiming to provide a better comprehension of the concept surrounding nature and nurture.

On one hand, exploring the level of significance evolutionary biology places in human development and on the other hand theorising the extent in which behaviour is socially acquired or culturally transferred. Therefore, attachment plays a crucial role in the familial structure, responsible for the quality and strength of their relationships, mental state from an infantile stage until adult stage, and further social interactions. Similarly, attachment perspective is looked at, from specific criminological theories, as a way of approach in explaining certain type of offending and criminal behaviour. Lerner and Spanier (1978) claim that family illustrates a social network, which is embedded into a social system, family representing the primary form of institution, accountable for the development and initiation of a new individual in a society.

In addition, studying attachment is essential in comprehending familial disruption, mental and emotional disturbances within a family, at the same time allowing further exploration on how these factors can impact on familial relations, social functioning and interaction. The family is the most significant social institution and influential source of the processes responsible in the development of a healthy adulthood and normal orientation in terms of interpersonal relationships. Moreover, whether an individual reaches adulthood as anxious or self-confident, easily trusting or quite suspicious, reserved or outspoken, sociable or withdraw, is very much determined by early experiences of family life. There are cultural differences in certain families, such as size and structure, and certain members of a family might have various rights and attributes in comparison with other members within that family. Similarly, the term family has been subject to change within each culture, with the passage of time, economical imbalance and social advancement. However, most societies concluded as necessary that institutionalising sexual relationships and child rearing in a specific form that an individual from a different culture would still be able to recognise and differentiate between a family and a cohabitating couple. Contemporarily, in western societies contradictory arguments in terms of defining the family and attributing certain features to it, has changed from the concept of family known in 1960s and 1970s. Faith Roberston Elliot (2005) states that 1960s was a key moment of development and change in family values in different societies and sexual morality. Family values within this period, transition from a general and normal conformity, consisting of sexual and familial morality viewed as lifelong marriage to adaption of diversity and permissiveness within a family. However, Weeks (1985) claims that development and change ,did not manifest due to consensus on family values and sexual related conventions but by other factors such as: social class, religious variations and ethnicity. Ethic differentiation, liberalisation, contraction of labour markets and economic influences impacted the perception of a family structure, moral and values. During the mid –twentieth century, sociologists established that in western societies sexual and familial relationships have been traditionally placed in a nuclear family unit, formed of long-lived marriage and women’s mothering skills. In addition, the nuclear family had a very specific form in modernity, rapidly becoming independent of kin and was marked by an emphasis on emotional closeness between husband and wife, and children and parents. Various theorists labelled this family form and structure using different notions, such as Linton (1949) and Goode (1963) which referred to as the conjugal family, and the companionship family called by Burgess (1963). The functionalist sociological perspective seems to reflect and reinforce beliefs in the universality and functionality of the nuclear family. Murdock (1949) portrayed the nuclear family as a universal human grouping, and attempted to demonstrate its universality in terms of sexual relationships, reproduction of the species, economic reciprocity between the sexes, crucial functions which, in Murdock’s perspective, are vital to the survival of the human species and the stability of the social order. Differences between the cultures points out the variability in childrearing habits and practices. Certain ethnic communities select an approach to childrearing that reflects the morals and values specific to that community. Healthy familial relationships are significant in the development and formation of an individual, therefore parental influence is a powerful foundation in the evolution of a competent person, especially in early life. The attachment theory is a subclass of the affectional ties or bonds, in which an individual has great emotional importance for another. Closeness to the specific individual is required and desired and any form of separation results in distress. Ainsworth (1978) suggested that and affectional bond develops into an attachment bond in a phase where the individual desires comfort and security from a relationship. Affectional bonds at the same time highlight and emphasize the correlation between attachment and sexuality. John Bowlby observes that the relationship between attachment and sexual behaviours is unusually closely linked and determined that “…distinct as the systems are, there is good evidence that they are apt to impinge on each other and to influence the development of each other” (Bowlby 1969, p.233). In other words, attachment is a key concept in the family sphere, present from early stages of development, partially responsible for the creation and maintenance of adult relationships.

However, other psychoanalytical factors are influential and contribute to the formation and development of an individual. The importance of a secure attachment in early stages of formation can’t be dismissed. For instance, children have the tendency to establish various attachment relationships in early life, based on hierarchical structure formed of caregivers, but with a chosen primary attachment figure. Specific factors contribute in determining the principal attachment body, such as the period the child spends in that person’s care, the emotional exchange and quality of time spent between the adult and the child, and the periodic reappearance of the person. John Bowlby has contributed , methodically exploring the functioning of attachment behaviour. He deducted in early stages of research, that physical proximity was the set goal and fundamental principle of the attachment system, demonstrating it through the absence of the primary caregiver ,which triggers in the infant the biological need of return and presence .Moreover ,in his later works ,Bowlby was influenced by cognitive psychology ,suggesting that different forms of attachments ,secure or insecure ,reflect differences in the individual’s capacity in accessing certain types of feelings, memories and thoughts. For example, avoidant insecure individuals can access limited attachment related memories, feelings and thoughts. If attachments relationships were internalised as insecure, other social relationships, with friends, children, and partners are more prone to contain negative factors. Healthy relationships are both the source of feelings but also the vehicle used to regulate and handle them. Moreover, the quality of relationships is significant, characterized by the absence or presence of communication, mutuality, care and tolerance, consistency and acceptance, warmth and empathy. During 1970s and 1980s attachment research was adopted as an investigative method in child maltreatment, sexual and physical abuse. (Fonagy,2001)

The strange situation behaviour marked by disorientation, fear and freezing, was closely related with child maltreatment and unsolved trauma in the parent’s history. There are different methods of measurement of attachment in infancy and adult stage. For instance, the strange situation developed by Mary Ainsworth, which involves short separation periods between the caregiver and infant. The research was focused on infant’s behaviour during separation but also after reunion with the primary caregiver. Under those circumstances, infant’s reaction can be categorized as: “securely attached, anxiously attached avoidant, anxiously attached ambivalent/resistant, and disorganized/disoriented” (Fonagy,2001, p.20) In contrast, other methods of measurement of attachment are the Cassidy and Marvin system, coding systems focused on symbolic representation, the child attachment interview, the attachment Q-sort and the adult attachment interview. Anna Freud analysed and reported the significance and importance of attachment relationships, in her clinical work in the Hamstead War Nurseries. Where she and Dorothy Burlingham (1944) made observations on children who were survivors of concentration camps. During their observational work, it was determined that children were looking for security, safety and comfort in relationships with other children, and seek physical proximity with each other, rather than preferring adults in moments of distress. Notably, attachment system is crucial in any familial environment, as it represents a significant evolutionary system. Is equally important to refer to other psychological mechanisms when mentioning attachment and its impact on the development and formation of an individual, from infancy to adult life. As mentioned earlier, the existence of an insecure attachment with the mother was considered a sign of neglect and rigidity from the mother’s side. Potentially the mother might have had some historical untreated episodes of trauma. Psychic trauma consists of strong personal suffering, but at the same time involves recognition of a distorted reality, that causes distress. For example, a child is legally separated from the caregiver due to neglect reasons and put into social care, will probably be unable to form secure attachments and promote a healthy behaviour, which might lead to the formation of trauma, visibly expressed in adulthood.

Sigmund Freud (1939) provides an insight into the historical perception of war trauma, suggesting that for those who undergo a traumatic experience, it is not only the moment of the event but dealing with the after emotions is traumatic, called survival in Freud’s perception. For example, ‘A child survivor of the Holocaust who had been at Theresienstadt continually had flashbacks of trains, and didn’t know where they came from; Until one day, in a group survivor meeting, a man says, “Yes at Theresienstadt you could see the trains through the bars of the children’s barracks”’. (Kinsler,1990)

Freud’s work on trauma was essentially derived from the historical experience of Jewish culture, comparing the historical experiences of the Jews with trauma. However, Freud focuses on the period after the event in which the effects and symptoms of trauma are not apparent, termed latency. Traumatic experiences are hard to deal with in their intensity, often formed as memories that are not immediately identifiable as truth. Such events are bets comprehended not through the direct acquisition of events, but by discovering why and where conscious understanding and memory fail. Franz Ruppert in his research work argues that a mother who has been through a traumatic experience will inevitably transfer her trauma in a different form onto her children at some point. (Ruppert 2007) Therefore, traumatic events at some extent have an impact and effect on several generations. The individual’s psyche is a multigenerational system that passes traumatic experiences to the next generations through the emotional bonding mechanism. Trauma in the family can be experienced through different channels, and by various members of the family. As an illustration, a mother who had a miscarriage or an abortion, the sudden loss of a loved one with whom the mother had a strong bond manifests into trauma of loss. Another example would be a traumatic event from early stages of the attachment bond with the caregiver/mother, manifesting into symbiotic trauma. In other words, trauma has a major impact not only on family relations, individual member of a family, but also has effect on the social competence of a person. Individually, trauma can be experienced in physical form (sleep deprivation, headaches, digestion issues, high blood pressure) as well as impact on the mental health (stress, depression, PTSD). Another key point is the effect it has on adult intimate relationships, manifesting through communication problems, handling emotions and managing intimacy, which can escalate into violence and separation. Existence of trauma in a family has impact on the parent –child bond and sibling relationship, which can develop into conflict and potentially feelings of being rejected. The family as a whole is responsible for providing resources to meet the needs of every member, such as: love, security, shelter, food, education, protection.

In summary, instability in a family environment can lead to the development of various problems. Family members develop through their relationships and encounters with others, particularly those in early development. As mentioned above, traumatic events may lead to various internal distortions in the family, however not necessarily there will be an impact on social interaction such as school or work performance. Every family has a different system of adaption to trauma and unpleasant events over time. In terms of family recovery, certain factors influence this process such as: the level of exposure to trauma and the nature of trauma, history of trauma, the present and prior functioning and state of the family, the availability of resources and support in coping with trauma. Consequently, when a member of the family suffers a traumatic event, the whole family is exposed to the aftermath. Trauma has the capacity to affect vital functions such as parenting responsibilities, education, protection and emotional bonds. Children particularly might be at risk when a family deals with trauma as parents might reduce communication, expressiveness, role-distribution. Early relationships experienced as inconsistent and poor will develop incoherent integrated individuals.