Attachment and the Repetition of Trauma: A Case Study of Attachment‐Based Crisis Intervention

This article explores the difficult case of a 16‐year‐old who was causing a great deal of anxiety by presenting with dramatic behaviour, such as leaping off buildings, swallowing needles and poisons, and jumping in front of cars. The case study explores a six‐month period of crisis intervention, which focused on the unique kind of attachment relationship that existed between the teenager and his mother. The mother had experienced recurrent traumatisation prior to his birth, and it was found that the aftereffects of this traumatisation must have influenced the teenager's early attachment experiences and subsequent development. The attachment‐based therapy treated the crises as primarily ‘relational crises’. The therapy involved investigating and sharing formulations about their attachment history, cultivating an insight into the relational or dynamic determinants of the teenager's crises. Broader suggestions are made concerning the application of attachment theory to different approaches in family therapy, as well as to our understanding of phenomena such as transgenerational traumatisation.