Attachment Therapy - Diagnosis and Attachment Disorder

Diagnosis and Attachment Disorder

Attachment therapists claim to diagnose attachment disorder, and reactive attachment disorder. However, within attachment therapy, the diagnoses of attachment disorder and reactive attachment disorder are used in a manner not recognised in mainstream practice. Prior and Glaser describe two discourses on attachment disorder. One is science-based, found in academic journals and books with careful reference to theory, international classifications and evidence. They list Bowlby, Ainsworth, Tizard, Hodges, Chisholm, O'Connor and Zeanah and colleagues as respected attachment theorists and researchers in the field. The other discourse is found in clinical practice, non-academic literature and on the Internet where claims are made which have no basis in attachment theory and for which there is no empirical evidence. In particular unfounded claims are made as to efficacy of treatments. The Internet is considered essential to the popularization of holding therapy as an "attachment" therapy.

The APSAC Task Force describes the relationship between the proponents of attachment therapy and mainstream therapies as polarized. "This polarization is compounded by the fact that attachment therapy has largely developed outside the mainstream scientific and professional community and flourishes within its own networks of attachment therapists, treatment centers, caseworkers, and parent support groups. Indeed, proponents and critics of the controversial attachment therapies appear to move in different worlds."