Attachment, mentalization and emotional regulation: what relationship with the psychological trauma?

ATTACHMENT, MENTALIZATION AND EMOTION REGULATION: WHAT RELATIONSHIP WITH THE PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAUMA? Baldoni Franco Attachment Assessment Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Bologna franco.baldoni@unibo.it Research on mentalization processes and knowledge on brain activity recently acquired by neurosciences have allowed to identify mental functions and processes involved in the regulation of emotions and impulses, including aggressive ones. People who have experienced maltreatment or neglect during childhood (developmental trauma), or other psychological traumas, show an inhibition of the prefrontal areas with a deficit in the mentalizing processes (Van der Kolk, 2014). In these cases, emotions (and the related physiological states) are not regulated and the impulses can be uncontrolled manifested in the form of acting-outs or generalized reactions, such as Fight-or-flight or Freezing. The same people will tend to present dissociative symptoms and to control mental tension using external regulators of emotions (smoking, alcohol, drugs, physical or compulsive sexual activity, internet abuse) that will promote the exhibition of maladaptive behaviors and addictions (Baldoni, 2014). Two clinical cases undergoing dynamic psychotherapy and assessed through Adult Attachment Interview (coded according to the Dynamic-Maturative Model, DMM) will be described. In these patients the alteration of mentalization processes, and the consequent emotional dysregulation and maladaptive behavior, can be interpreted as the result of the non-resolution of a traumatic experience. Knowledge acquired on attachment and mentalization in psychological trauma can open new perspectives in the psychotherapy of impulse control and emotional regulation problems (panic attacks, antisocial and violent patients, personality disorders), abnormal illness behavior (somatization, functional disorders, hypochondria) and dissociative and post-traumatic disorders. In these cases, interventions based on rational and conscious aspects are not very effective, while therapist’s non-verbal behavior and interventions focused on the body experiences are more important for the treatment.