Attachment and detachment processes as a typological index of relational systems

Attachment and detachment processes, as defined by modern attachment theories, place them as integrative between innate and acquired behaviors, like a regulatory system for every close relationship. As a consequence, family attachment styles, which proceed-throughout development-together with personal identity construction processes, stress the notion of relationship as a dialectical and interactive process, defining the irreducible duality of human experience, in which the personal individuality construction is linked, since the earliest phases of life, to the significant relationships. Dysfunctional patterns of attachment and detachment and self-construction processes interact in defining personal organizations one can observe in psychopathological situations; some clinical examples are proposed.