Attachment-Based Psychotherapy: Helping Patients Develop Adaptive Capacities

281 Pages·2013·10.65 MB·English

by  Peter C. Costello

Attachment-Based
Psychotherapy
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Attachment-Based
Psychotherapy
Helping Patients Develop
Adaptive Capacities
Peter C. Costello
American Psychological Association • Washington, DC
Copyright © 2013 by the American Psychological Association. All rights reserved. Except
as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication
may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, including, but not limited to,
the process of scanning and digitization, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without
the prior written permission of the publisher.
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The opinions and statements published are the responsibility of the authors, and such opin-
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Costello, Peter C.
Attachment-based psychotherapy : helping patients develop adaptive capacities / Peter C.
Costello. — First edition.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4338-1302-3 — ISBN 1-4338-1302-5 1. Attachment behavior. 2. Psycho-
therapy. I. Title.
RC455.4.A84C67 2013
616.89'14—dc23
2012044760
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A CIP record is available from the British Library.
Printed in the United States of America
First Edition
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/14185-000
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For Rosemary, Andrew, and Jonathan
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ...................................................................................... ix
Chapter 1. Attachment, Communication, and Affect:
An Introduction ......................................................... 3
I. An Attachment-Based View of Development ................................... 17
Chapter 2. W hy Mothers Matter: The Evolution
of Maternal Care ............................................................ 19
Chapter 3. The Neural Sculpting of the Self ................................... 43
Chapter 4. Attachment .................................................................... 69
Chapter 5. Communication ............................................................. 87
Chapter 6. Affect ............................................................................ 107
II. Attachment-Based Psychotherapy ................................................. 123
Chapter 7. D efensive Exclusion and the Focus
of Attachment-Based Therapy ..................................... 125
vii
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Chapter 8. Anxiety, Depression, and Maladaptive Anger ............. 149
Chapter 9. The Security-Engendering Therapeutic Relationship .... 175
Chapter 10. D econstructing Aloneness: Helping the Patient
Access and Communicate Excluded Thoughts,
Feelings, and Behaviors ................................................ 189
References ................................................................................................ 221
Index ........................................................................................................ 259
About the Author .................................................................................... 269
viii contents
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
There is a line from a short story by G. K. Chesterton that John Bowlby
especially liked and that captures the human truth at the heart of attachment
theory: “Throughout all this ordeal his root horror had been isolation, and
there are no words to express the abyss between isolation and having one
ally” (see Bowlby, 1973, p. 201). While writing a book is perhaps not quite
an ordeal in the sense that Chesterton meant it, I have been blessed and
supported by the allies I have had in my work and in life. My friends and
colleagues and my discussions with them over the years have been the deep
background to this work, and I choose here to acknowledge and to thank
them collectively. I think you all know who you are. I am very grateful to
my patients, who have permitted me to know them in a way that has been
a gift and that has very much deepened my own experience of life. I also
thank the remarkable editors at APA Books, who guided this project from
its inception until the last ellipsis was dotted. I particularly thank Susan
Reynolds, whose steadfast interest in and encouragement for this book
weathered it through difficulties and interruptions, and Beth Hatch, whose
fine judgment and incisive (but tactful!) editing of the initial manuscript
turned that manuscript into a much better book than it could ever have been
without her. I also thank Ron Teeter and Cooky Bysura, who created a cover
that I love; Robin Easson, who found and righted errors with insight and pre-
cision; and Margaret Sullivan, whose skills and confidence played a key role
at an early point in the writing. Finally, I want to thank my wife, Rosemary,
and my sons, Andrew and Jonathan, whose encompassing presence and love
is the sustaining context for all that I do.
ix
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