This essay critically explores the role of film in shaping conceptualizations of attachment. It focuses on how the influential ‘disorganized/disoriented attachment’ classification of infant behaviour emerged as a consequence of film technologies and has subsequently been mummified by the way these media have been interpreted. In this way, the essay examines how tensions between the readability and unreadability of a child’s gesture on film have conventionally been dealt within attachment theory. It also demonstrates how film theory can help psychology by offering more productive ways of addressing recordings of infant movement that suggest affective disjuncture or conflict.
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Duschinsky et al. (2016) studied this question.