Attachment Theory: Working Towards Learned Security

By: Rhona M. Fear

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Synopsis: This book covers the groundbreaking concepts in attachment theory, as promulgated by Bowlby himself and during the years post Bowlby. It sets out to develop the seminal concept of 'learned security': the provision of a reparative experience of a secure base by the therapist so that the client can imbibe what he missed out on during his formative years. Rhona M. Fear points out that the idea of learned security has developed from the concept of earned security but is distinctly different. In Part I, Fear outlines the origins and progress of attachment theory and the concepts of earned and learned security. In Part II, she uses a process of dialectical thinking to put forward an integration of Kohut's self psychology, Bowlby's attachment theory, and Stolorow, Atwood and Brandchaft's intersubjective perspective. The unifying concept that binds these three theories together is that of empathy, but she puts forward a particular intersubjective, collaborative view of empathic attunement.