Two diverging paths in psychological and neurobiological organization: using or refusing love

Difficulties in early development, such as adverse childhood experiences, interfere with the formation of social connections and lead to deleterious outcomes in emotional and physical health across the lifespan. While a child’s actual experiences with parents are well-known to be significant, less well appreciated is the child’s role in shaping developmental outcomes. Some children may form defensive and ultimately maladaptive structures and actively refuse available love and support. This manuscript develops an integrative neuropsychoanalytic model based on evolutionary and complex dynamic systems theories involving the psychological, neurobiological, as well as general biological processes and pathways which lead to either secure attachment, loving object constancy, and health, or to insecure attachment, hostile object constancy, and illness. Positive outcomes represent open-system functioning that involves using love, promoting optimal plasticity. Negative outcomes represent the opposite: closed-system functioning where the child refuses available love and becomes stuck in a world of mistrust, stress, and adversity. Effective prevention and treatment of closed-system functioning promote biological and psychological plasticity and help patients become open to experiencing positive relationships and promote lifelong health and wellbeing.