Attachment and Personality Disorders
Sep 20, 2026 · 41 min · 8 segments
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- NigroHost
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- SuitabilitySafeBiasNot politicalAudience≈3k followers
Sep 20, 2026 · 41 min · 8 segments
Because attachment is one of like developmental influence, but it's not destiny.
So, you know, a difficult childhood doesn't automatically produce a personality disorder.
And, you know, parents, they...
They can make mistakes without destroying their child's capacity for attachment.
Temperament matters, genetics, trauma, culture, friendships, peer relationships, neurodevelopment.
And human development, I would say, is probabilistic.
It is not predetermined.
So I think it would probably be best to kind of start with, you know, what is attachment? And I've referred to John Bowlby in the past because his insight, I think, was, you deceptively simple that a child's attachment to a caregiver, whether that be a mother, a father, sometimes could be an aunt, a grandparent, who's providing, who's taking care of this child's needs.
It's not just sentimental, it's biologically important because as infants, humans, I think animals, mammals in general, are extraordinarily dependent.
We do not come into this world being able to feed ourselves or protect ourselves, regulating our temperature, escaping predators, managing overwhelming emotional stress.
We come into more or less what John Locke had referred to as the, you know, the Tabula Rasa, we come to the world as a blank state.
So from an evolutionary perspective, staying close to a protective adult dramatically increased survival.
So attachment behavior, I think, makes sense.
You know, a baby cries, a toddler follows a parent, a frightened child reaches upward.
And what the child, from an attachment perspective, is essentially asking is, where is my safe person? Where is my safe person? And that is the attachment system.
And there's a term in in developmental psychology and in attachment work is the concept of a secure base.
A securely attached child doesn't simply, you know, cling to a parent constantly.
A secure child actually – a secure base actually facilitates exploration.
So, you know, think of like a child or a toddler on the playground, you know, the kid walks to the slide and – They look back.
Okay, mom or dad, okay, they're still there.
They walk a little farther.
And they look back.
Are they still there? And eventually the child begins to what PJ would say is operate on the environment.
They start exploring.
They may walk a little further and so on and so forth.
Because attachment is one of like developmental influence, but it's not destiny.
So, you know, a difficult childhood doesn't automatically produce a personality disorder.
And, you know, parents, they...
They can make mistakes without destroying their child's capacity for attachment.
Temperament matters, genetics, trauma, culture, friendships, peer relationships, neurodevelopment.
And human development, I would say, is probabilistic.
It is not predetermined.
So I think it would probably be best to kind of start with, you know, what is attachment? And I've referred to John Bowlby in the past because his insight, I think, was, you deceptively simple that a child's attachment to a caregiver, whether that be a mother, a father, sometimes could be an aunt, a grandparent, who's providing, who's taking care of this child's needs.
It's not just sentimental, it's biologically important because as infants, humans, I think animals, mammals in general, are extraordinarily dependent.
We do not come into this world being able to feed ourselves or protect ourselves, regulating our temperature, escaping predators, managing overwhelming emotional stress.
We come into more or less what John Locke had referred to as the, you know, the Tabula Rasa, we come to the world as a blank state.
So from an evolutionary perspective, staying close to a protective adult dramatically increased survival.
So attachment behavior, I think, makes sense.
You know, a baby cries, a toddler follows a parent, a frightened child reaches upward.
And what the child, from an attachment perspective, is essentially asking is, where is my safe person? Where is my safe person? And that is the attachment system.
And there's a term in in developmental psychology and in attachment work is the concept of a secure base.
A securely attached child doesn't simply, you know, cling to a parent constantly.
A secure child actually – a secure base actually facilitates exploration.
So, you know, think of like a child or a toddler on the playground, you know, the kid walks to the slide and – They look back.
Okay, mom or dad, okay, they're still there.
They walk a little farther.
And they look back.
Are they still there? And eventually the child begins to what PJ would say is operate on the environment.
They start exploring.
They may walk a little further and so on and so forth.
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