Trauma, dissociation, and disorganized attachment: Three strands of a single braid

During the past decade, research findings, theoretical reflections, and clinical experiences have woven together the themes of attachment disorganization, dissociative processes, and vulnerability to trauma-related emotional disorders. The resulting unitary perspective is captured in this article by an overview of inquiries on unresolved traumatic memories based on the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) and of studies on the sequelae of early disorganized attachments. To illustrate the intriguing clinical implications of this unitary perspective, the author considers such topics as vulnerability to complex trauma-related disorders, delayed dissociative responses to past traumatic memories, and the definition of psychological trauma. Some psychotherapeutic implications of the interplay between trauma-related disorders and attachment disorganization are briefly addressed in the concluding section.