Securing attachment: The shifting medicalisation of attachment and attachment disorders

Abstract

This paper examines the medicalisation of attachment and attachment disorders. It argues that there was a shift in the form of medicalisation of attachment with significant implications for the regulation of the family. In the 1930s and 1940s, the medicalisation of attachment focused on the identification and treatment of attachment disorders in children and by extension, their mothers. While mothers were held responsible for the attachment disorders in their children, their parental difficulties were often linked to factors outside of their control such as difficult childhoods or impoverished circumstances. As a result, mothers were not held morally responsible for their failings but were instead referred for psycho-medical treatment. More recently, there was a shift to medicalising attachment as both a risk and protective factor. Through the use of the techniques of surveillance medicine, individuals were classified with secure or insecure attachment. As a result, attachment was viewed as precarious. More importantly, secure attachment status was connected to the later academic and social success of children. Consequently, there was a greater emphasis on parents, particularly mothers, monitoring themselves in the promotion of secure attachment in their children.