The exposure to maltreatment and to conditions of danger during childhood and adulthood is very common among humans. In serious conditions of danger, when attachment strategies fail, adaptive defensive reactions can manifest themselves: the alternation of the expression of unsure avoidant and preoccupied patterns (A/C), as in PTSD, the desperation state, the depression state, up to the final state of learned hopelessness/helplessness (Crittenden, 1997). Desperation is a helpless mental state in which the help from others is actively researched. For this reason it preserves an adaptive value. This state can lead to a radical change in attachment strategy and promote the elaboration of traumatic experiences and the reorganization towards strategies more protective for the Self. A case of a women saved by her desperation state will be discussed. She suffered from anxiety, irritability, aggressive behaviour, endocrinal disease and was sexually abused by her father during adolescence. Using DSM-IV criteria the first diagnosis was: Anxiety Disorder associated with general medical condition (hyperthyroidism). Patient was submitted to two periods of Dynamic-Oriented Psychotherapy (one time a week). During first period, that lasted one year, a medical therapy was administered for an hyperthyroidism with exophthalmia. During the second period of psychotherapy, that lasted two years, an anti-depressive therapy was administered. Two months after the restarting of the psychotherapy attachment was assessed by AAI using DMM criteria. A few months after the second period of therapy, the physical state was normal, the psychological symptoms decreased, the spousal relationship improved and the relation with daughter and the patient’s mother improved. The attachment assessment with AAI revealed a partial Depression as a modifier, an unresolved trauma (preoccupied) for sexual abuse (no more blocked) and a A+ pattern. The configuration was: (Dp) Utr (p) sexual abuse A4-5 (7).
F. Baldoni (2008). Failure of attachment strategies and the adaptive value of desperation: Cabo’s choice.. BERTINORO : Ge.Graf..
Failure of attachment strategies and the adaptive value of desperation: Cabo’s choice.
BALDONI, FRANCO
2008
Abstract
The exposure to maltreatment and to conditions of danger during childhood and adulthood is very common among humans. In serious conditions of danger, when attachment strategies fail, adaptive defensive reactions can manifest themselves: the alternation of the expression of unsure avoidant and preoccupied patterns (A/C), as in PTSD, the desperation state, the depression state, up to the final state of learned hopelessness/helplessness (Crittenden, 1997). Desperation is a helpless mental state in which the help from others is actively researched. For this reason it preserves an adaptive value. This state can lead to a radical change in attachment strategy and promote the elaboration of traumatic experiences and the reorganization towards strategies more protective for the Self. A case of a women saved by her desperation state will be discussed. She suffered from anxiety, irritability, aggressive behaviour, endocrinal disease and was sexually abused by her father during adolescence. Using DSM-IV criteria the first diagnosis was: Anxiety Disorder associated with general medical condition (hyperthyroidism). Patient was submitted to two periods of Dynamic-Oriented Psychotherapy (one time a week). During first period, that lasted one year, a medical therapy was administered for an hyperthyroidism with exophthalmia. During the second period of psychotherapy, that lasted two years, an anti-depressive therapy was administered. Two months after the restarting of the psychotherapy attachment was assessed by AAI using DMM criteria. A few months after the second period of therapy, the physical state was normal, the psychological symptoms decreased, the spousal relationship improved and the relation with daughter and the patient’s mother improved. The attachment assessment with AAI revealed a partial Depression as a modifier, an unresolved trauma (preoccupied) for sexual abuse (no more blocked) and a A+ pattern. The configuration was: (Dp) Utr (p) sexual abuse A4-5 (7).I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
