Crisis Intervention Guided by Attachment Concepts—a Case Study

SUMMARY Caplan's concepts of crisis and crisis intervention arc summarized and compared with Parkes' concept of psychosocial transition, which embodies attachment concepts (Bowlby) and an elaboration of Cantril's concept of the Assumptive Form World. This latter concept, taken further is presented as a metaphor in which to discuss events, experiences and behaviour commonly seen in crisis situations. The case study of a suicide bid by a young adolescent boy, illustrates the way attachment concepts, expressed through the metaphor of personal assumptive worlds, may be used to guide intervention in crisis situations in child and adolescent psychiatry.