All About Attachment Disorder: An Overview
Attachment disorders are the psychological result of negative experiences with caretakers, usually since infancy, that disrupt the exclusive and unique relationship between kids and their primary caretaker(s). Oppositional and defiant behaviors may be the result of disruptions in attachment. Many kids experience the loss of primary caretakers either because they are physically separated from them or because the caretaker is incapable of providing adequate care. Removal from primary caretakers can cause serious problems by breaking primary attachments, even if alternate caretakers are competent. Attachment disorders have been described in the psychological and psychiatric literature for approximately 50 years. The condition Rene Spitz called anaclitic depression is now considered an attachment disorder. Spitz observed young kids in an orphanage who were fed and kept clean and were initially in good physical condition but who received no consistent affection from a sole caret