Anxious attachment may be a vulnerability factor for developing embitterment

• Published in: Psychology and psychotherapy Vol. 85; no. 4; pp. 351 - 355
• Main Authors: Blom, David, van Middendorp, Henriët, Geenen, Rinie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.12.2012; British Psychological Society
• Subjects: Adult; Affectivity. Emotion; Anxiety; Anxiety - psychology; Anxious attachment; Attachment; Biological and medical sciences; Defense Mechanisms; Ego; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Interventions; Male; Middle Aged; Object Attachment; Personality. Affectivity; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Risk Factors; Social situations; Surveys and Questionnaires; Vulnerability; Human; Affect affectivity; Defense mechanism; Anxiety; Vulnerability; Affective attachment
• ISSN: 1476-0835; 2044-8341
• DOI: 10.1111/j.2044-8341.2011.02039.x

By predisposing to ego‐defensive strategies in social situations, a negative attachment history may promote embitterment. The present study identified attachment anxiety – more than attachment avoidance – as a possible vulnerability factor for the development and maintenance of embitterment. This factor should be considered in theories and in interventions of embitterment. Practitioner Points •  Interventions directed at embitterment should take anxious attachment into account. •  Embittered individuals with high levels of attachment anxiety should be provided a secure therapeutic environment in which defensive tendencies are no longer needed.