Trauma, dissociation, and disorganized attachment: Three strands of a single braid.

The aim of this paper is to familiarize the reader with research findings and theoretical perspectives that suggest that disorganized attachment plays a central role in trauma-related disorders. It is proposed that the propensity to react to traumatic events with dissociation is related to disorganization of early attachment and its developmental sequelae. This conceptual framework has deep implications for the psychotherapeutic treatment of dissociative disorders, a topic that will be briefly addressed in the final section of this paper. An overview of research on attachment in infants and adults Early attachment is studied and assessed through a standardized laboratory procedure (the Strange Situation: Ainsworth, 1982) where infants about 18 months old are observed during two brief episodes of separation from a caregiver, followed by two episodes of reunion. Three patterns of organized attachment behavior have been identified in infants: secure (the infant cries at separation and is quickly comforted at reunion), insecure-avoidant (the infant does not cry at separation, and actively avoids the caregiver on reunion) and insecure-ambivalent (the infant cries at separation, but is not easily comforted on reunion). Some infants are not able to organize their attachment behavior according to any unitary or coherent pattern: they are classified disorganized in