The relevance of attachment research to psychoanalysis and analytic social psychology

The extensive empirical research generated by attachment theory is briefly reviewed, with special reference to transgenerational transmission of attachment patterns, internal working models, cross-cultural, and longitudinal studies. It is claimed that attachment theory and research support the alternative psychoanalytic approach initiated by Ferenczi, especially as regards the re-evaluation of real-life traumatic events, the occurrence of personality splits after childhood trauma, and the aggravation of trauma due to its denial by adults. The concepts of transgenerational transmission and of alternative developmental pathways are further contributions to an alternative psychoanalytic framework. Finally, attention is called to the relevance of the cross-cultural studies to Fromm's analytic social psychology.