23rd November 2023

Conditions for Secure Attachment

We’ve now talked about the different types of attachment – but how is it that children can develop a secure attachment? What is the importance of this for later life?

Donald Winnicott

Donald Winnicott was yet another psychoanalyst, although with a background as a paediatrician, who theorised about the importance of early childhood and the attachments in these. There are two main concepts you need to know from him:

The holding environment

Winnicott described the importance of a ‘holding environment’ for infants – where they are physically held with that same tactile comfort that Harlow’s monkeys demonstrated, but also psychologically held. This means they need an environment where they are thought about and responded to. When they cry, and they need a parent, there is a responsive parent there for them. The holding environment is an important part of psychological therapy – the therapist needs to be able to create a psychologically safe space for the client to be supported and responded to.

Good-enough mothering

Within the holding environment, you need a ‘good enough mother’ to respond to the child. A neglectful caregiver leads to a child who is anxious and finds life unmanageable. An over-responsive caregiver will mean the child doesn’t develop their own abilities and skills to manage life on their own. The mother needs to be ‘just right’ or simply ‘good enough’.

Maternal sensitivity

‘The infant and young child should experience a warm, intimate, and continuous relationship with his mother (or permanent mother substitute) in which both find satisfaction and enjoyment.’ – John Bowlby

Whilst we’re talking about attachment styles in infants, it’s important to remember that how an infant relates to others is not actually about the temperament of the child. Attachment behaviours are innate and are needed to make a caregiver respond. It is the caregiver’s response to these and their sensitivity to the child’s needs that causes these behaviours to change and develop.

Ainsworth assessed children during the strange situation test but also in their home environments. Part of this was assessing the caregivers. She noted that children who were securely attached were correlated with sensitive mothers who enjoyed their caregiving responsibilities, especially breastfeeding. In contrast, mothers of babies with avoidant attachment tended to be ‘more rejecting, more often angry, and yet more restricted in the expression of affect’. Along with Mary Main, she theorised that this develops as the child calls out for their mother and is constantly rebuffed, leading to the formation of avoidance as a defence to the anger and anxiety in the child.

The parent needs to behave as the ‘secure base’ we’ve talked about several times in this chapter. Bowlby recognised the importance of the quality and consistency of the relationship in this.

References

• Ainsworth, M. (1979). ‘Infant-Mother Attachment’. American Psychologist. 34:10. 932-937.
• Bretherton, I. (1992). ‘The origins of attachment theory: John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth’. Developmental Psychology. 28:5. 759-775.
• Johnstone, E et al. (2010). Companion to psychiatric studies 8e. Elsevier.