Attachment Styles and Personality Disorders | What is Attachment Theory?

This video answers the questions: What is the attachment theory? How does attachment theory relate to personality disorders?

Some researchers believe that attachment theory may be able to partially explain the development of anxiety, depression, personality disorders, as well as other factors like marital problems, poor academic performance, and other negative outcomes. Attachment styles may be a major determining factor in the organization of personality and etiological for psychopathology.

Attachment model from Bartholomew and Horowitz:
1. secure attachment: this is considered healthy attachment, we see a capacity maintain close relationships without losing a sense of autonomy, placing value on intimate friendships, and being thoughtful when discussing relationships
2. dismissing attachment: with this style we see someone who has restricted emotions, flat affect, they downplay the importance of close relationships, they place a strong emphasis on being self-reliant and independent, and they are not clear and trustworthy when they discuss relationships
3. preoccupied attachment: here we see someone who needs other people to accept them, they have a tendency to idealize others, they are overinvolved in close relationships, and we see exaggerated emotionality and incoherence when discussing relationships
4. fearful attachment: here we see someone who avoids close relationships because they are afraid of rejection, they tend to distrust other people and they feel insecure

Meyer, B., Pilkonis, P. A., & Beevers, C. G. (2004). What’s in a (Neutral) Face? Personality Disorders, Attachment Styles, and the Appraisal of Ambiguous Social Cues. Journal of Personality Disorders, 18(4), 320–336. doi:10.1521/pedi.2004.18.4.320

Irma G.H. Timmerman, Paul M.G. Emmelkamp,
The relationship between attachment styles and Cluster B personality disorders in prisoners and forensic inpatients,
International Journal of Law and Psychiatry,

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[mireillelebeau]

When I was younger I didn't trust my mum for my basic needs, sometimes she had protected me sometimes she had put me in danger. oftentimes she just forgot about me. So why should I been trusting anyone for anything now? They say avoidant personality disorders, I say avoidant survival strategy. Thank you Dr Grande

[RianneMision]

ATTACHMENT STYLES:

Secure 3:50
Dismissing 4:07
Preoccupied 4:28
Fearful 4:48

PERSONALITY DISORDERS:

Paranoid 10:37
Schizoid 11:06
Schizotypal 11:25

Antisocial 11:48
Borderline 12:22
Narcissistic 12:53
Histrionic 13:23

Avoidant 14:12
Dependent 14:32
Obsessive Compulsive 14:54

[SpaceShowFeature]

Dr. Grade is batting a home run with a streak of interesting videos.

[rejaneoliveira]

This was a profound analysis.
Dr. Grande always setting the bar very high in terms of content and delivery of information.
Thank you Dr. Grande!

[yasmintomic]

Reading about attachment theory had a profound influence on how I relate to my children. I am now more aware of the impact parenting can have long term. I find this topic extremely interesting. Thanks Dr G.

[elarakamai]

Well done! Aligning attachment styles with the personality disorders is quite a task. Seems like we could merge these taxonomic systems into a more unified theory of personality and psychological disorders.

[elisamastromarino]

I watched this four times. It makes me wonder how many mothers realize the importance of their role. 🤤
Thank you as always, Dr Grande. 👍🌹

[mongo]

Dr. Grande doesn't get enough credit. This man ALWAYS has an impressive like/dislike ratio on his videos.

[MH-cvye]

I have to admit to being somewhat fearful of relationships, due to narc abuse. So, this video is helpful to reinforce truths.

Taking time to assess someone's character is obviously essential to forming any attachments other than with dependant children.

Thanks to these topics, it's likely that everyone's life improves. Nice one, Grande. 😎✔

[conniethingstad]

oh my. i will have to listen to this again to take it all in. I raised a stepson (no mom around) with attachment disorder. The only personality disorder mentioned was oppositional defiant disorder...very dangerous child. Finally found great counselors in Indiana at a treatment center focused solely on AD and then a counselor in Iowa that had a specialty in AD. He's an adult now and even said recently..bet you never dreamed I'd turn out as well as I did. I could never imagined it considering where he started. AD is treatable but many counselors have told me it's unusual. This is one heavy duty video!!

[HumanimalChannel]

every time i listen to Dr Grande I give myself a different diagnosis.

[latinaalma]

Absolutely correct that as psychoanalytic theory went out of fashion when Skinner and behaviorism was at its peak in the early 60s and the, 70s, attachment theory fell out of favor. Developmental theorist Erik Erickson also had placed a high emphasis on attachment theory as the foundation of trust of others.

I imagine you expand upon the theme of the historical theories of etiology in psychology in your grad lectures. It is important that we understand what has come before and the effort it took, to, get where we are in our field which of, course, will continue to develop in future. What concerns me most now that I am retired is how our field is put to, use in public policy and politics.

WIth mental illness in particular, when I see popular movies that take an expose' tone I cringe because each step that was taken since the mentally I'll were first taken into religiously sponsored asylums through to today, with so much emphasis on pharmacological management of symptoms, each step was thought as more humane than what went before. Burning at the stake of the mentally ill believed to be possessed by the devil or demons
....to religious asylums where patients were often naked and chained not to punish them, but to prevent self harm....
.... to the later government run asylums and hospitals of the 19th century that used insulin shock and cold water therapies
...to the mid 20 century when Thorazine was the treatment of choice to tranq patients to oblivion ala "The Cuckoos Nest"
the wholesale closing of those institutions heralded as progressive community mental health ala, Thomas Szaz, The Myth of Mental Illness, which politicians cited to save money so that the mentally ill were left to fend for themselves
....to today's situation where pharmaceuticals are used FAR too thoroughly to the exclusion of everything else. Too few get other therapies (Besel Van der Kolk: "TheBody Keeps the Score")that research shows CAN be helpful with some diagnoses...

And so each development, has been believed at the time, to be an advancement in treatment policy over what it replaced only to, have policymakers ie. politicians who fund each solution in modern times overuse the next "great" solution.

Now the severely mentally ill are too often homeless on the street, untreated, self medicating on alcohol or other even more faster acting lethal substances, the early does society see these as more HUMANE?
THose movies do not show how society's policies esp, In the US, have evolved into something only slightly less horrific than the one I described at the beg of my rant.

LIke the research physicists who developed the atomic bomb feared its ultimate use, we as psychologists have learned to fear how our profession's research will be turned into public policy in the

Thanks for another excellent thoughtful discussion

Sybil Francis PhD

[ohmusic]

I gotta just say this.. you have the perfect intro. Simple. To the point. Short enough I don’t feel the need to skip it. Good shit

[coffeepot]

My base response to negative outcomes/worries is to boil everything down to the point that nothing in life matters.
It's like taking every positive advice you hear people give others and taking it to the extreme.
Saps all the joy out of my life as i start to view family/friends as strangers that i have loose ties with (when deep down that's not the case)
Every celebration i partake in i feel no joy.


The past 2 years I've suffered from emotional numbness and i'm still recovering.
Last summer i was at my worst with that condition and i was on vacation for a week.
Lived with my sister and her fiancee that week and we decided to meet up with our younger sister.
Second i met my younger sister at the train station she just stopped and looked at me, I wasn't malnourished or anything, i had nice clothes fresh haircut and all that, I reckon it was the eyes that put her off.
Her reaction to meeting me scared me more than having the condition itself.
I remember my sisters fiancee was on edge the whole week i was their guest.
I felt like a robot/serial killer.
But after this vacation i had a wake-up call and started to work on improving my mental health.
Getting my own apartment drastically improved my mental state and now after a lot of work i can feel emotions again.
Anyways, these videos has helped me out a lot and i appreciate the work you put into the videos.

[gaillewis]

I work in Special Education and your videos are invaluable. Thank you for expanding on the professional development classes we have on mental health issues.

[ethanpoole]

I recently finished reading the book “Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and...” by Dr. Amir Levine over Christmas and highly recommend it for anyone interested in learning more about attachment in adults and the importance of understanding attachment type in relationships (and to be mindful of the anxious-avoidant trap). The book also offers advice on how to relate to and improve communication between partners of differing attachment types. As someone who has struggled with Complex PTSD, and the physical disability and chronic illness all that past abuse caused, for the past 36 years (since age 12) and who has not been in any sort of relationship whatsoever in more than a quarter century I found the book very enlightening (I doubt if I’ll ever have a partner to test the advice against as I have never seen myself as worthy of love, but it was extremely enlightening and very well written nonetheless and I highly recommend the book...and I may still dream at least!).

[srmillard]

Wow, this requires a few re-watches. Loaded with good info. Thank you!

[begily]

This is so useful thank you Dr.Grande. I work in a Mentalization Based Treatment (MBT) service for men with personality disorder. One of the key theories underpinning MBT is Attachment Theory. One of the most challenging aspects has been to make links between a clients personality and their attachment style. Your breakdown of the differing attachment theories has really helped in that regard; we often found ourselves becoming bogged down by terminology from the differing models without realizing they were from differing models!
Speaking of MBT, it would be very interesting to see you talk about it. I suppose to some extent it could compliment this video, as there is some evidence in the literature I believe that links different attachment styles to mentalizing capacity. The work of Peter Fonagy is of particular note.

[livictori]

I believe based on how, I was an anxious preoccupied. When I had my second daughter I saw a psychiatrist who diagnosed me with ocpd. The fear of ruining my children caused me to seek years of therapy. My attempt to avoid them being abused by men and avoiding interacting with men on a deep level made me develop dismissive traits as an adult. I just ended my engagement because I truly believe his intentions are insincere. Over the last couple weeks, YouTube has exposed these theories and I’ve been binging on videos. I will be seeking therapy because this is overwhelming

[MrChaosAdam]

Excellent video!
Could you make a video on how to avoid raising a narcissist/borderline?
Does narcissism/borderline have a genetic component?