Clinical Applications of the Adult Attachment Interview

Howard Steele, PhD, is Professor and Chair of the Clinical Psychology Faculty and Co-Director of the Center for Attachment Research at The New School for Social Research. Dr. Steele is senior and founding editor of the journal Attachment and Human Development and founding and past president of the Society for Emotion and Attachment Studies. He has published more than 100 journal articles and book chapters, many in collaboration with Miriam Steele, in the areas of attachment theory and research, intergenerational patterns of attachment, mourning in response to trauma and loss, and attachment-based interventions to prevent child maltreatment and promote secure, organized attachments. With Miriam Steele and Anne Murphy, Dr. Steele has pioneered the development of Group Attachment-Based Intervention (GABI©), aimed at preventing child maltreatment and promoting attachment security. He is a recipient of the 2017 Bowlby–Ainsworth Award from the Center for Mental Health Promotion, which cited his contributions as a scientist, editor, and clinical innovator. Miriam Steele, PhD, is Professor of Psychology and Co-Director of the Center for Attachment Research at The New School for Social Research. She trained as a psychoanalyst at the Anna Freud Centre. Her work aims to bridge the world of psychoanalytic thinking and clinical practice with contemporary research in child development. She initiated the London Parent–Child Project, a major longitudinal study of intergenerational patterns of attachment that gave rise to the concept of "reflective functioning." She has published more than 100 journal articles and book chapters, many in collaboration with Howard Steele. With Howard Steele and Anne Murphy, Dr. Steele has pioneered the development of Group Attachment-Based Intervention (GABI©), aimed at preventing child maltreatment and promoting attachment security. She is a recipient of the 2017 Bowlby–Ainsworth Award from the Center for Mental Health Promotion, which cited her innovative longitudinal studies and translational research on attachment and mental representation.

Foreword, June Sroufe

I. The AAI in Clinical Context

1. Ten Clinical Uses of the Adult Attachment Interview, Howard Steele and Miriam Steele

2. Studying Differences in Language Usage in Recounting Attachment History: An Introduction to the Adult Attachment Interview, Mary Main, Erik Hesse, and Ruth Goldwyn

3. The Distribution of Adult Attachment Representations in Clinical Groups: A Meta-Analytic Search for Patterns of Attachment in 105 AAI Studies, Marinus H. van IJzendoorn and Marian J. Bakermans-Kranenburg

II. Intervention Research with Mothers, Infants, and Toddlers

4. The AAI Anticipates the Outcome of a Relation-Based Early Intervention, Christoph M. Heinicke and Mónica Susana Levine

5. Adult Attachment, Parental Commitment to Early Intervention, and Developmental Outcomes in an African American Sample, Douglas M. Teti, Lauren A. Killeen, Margo Candelaria, Wendy Miller, Christine Reiner Hess, and Melissa O’Connell

6. Attachment-Theory-Informed Intervention and Reflective Functioning in Depressed Mothers, Sheree L. Toth, Fred A. Rogosch, and Dante Cicchetti

III. Parent–Infant Relationships, Adolescents, and Adults in Psychotherapy

7. The AAI as a Clinical Tool, Amanda Jones

8. Integrating the AAI in the Clinical Process of Psychoanalytic Parent–Infant Psychotherapy in a Case of Relational Trauma, Tessa Baradon and Miriam Steele

9. Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder in Adolescence: An AAI Perspective, Tord Ivarsson

10. The AAI in a Clinical Context: Some Experiences and Illustrations, Massimo Ammaniti, Nino Dazzi, and Sergio Muscetta

11. The Reciprocal Impact of Attachment and Transference-Focused Psychotherapy with Borderline Patients, Diana Diamond, Frank E. Yeomans, John F. Clarkin, Kenneth N. Levy, and Otto F. Kernberg

IV. The AAI and Trauma

12. The AAI and Its Contribution to a Therapeutic Intervention Project for Violent, Traumatized, and Suicidal Cases, Sonia Gojman de Millán and Salvador Millán

13. Adult Attachment and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Women with Histories of Childhood Abuse, K. Chase Stovall-McClough, Marylene Cloitre, and Joel F. McClough

14. AAIs in a High-Risk Sample: Stability and Relation to Functioning from Adolescence to 39 Years, Judith A. Crowell and Stuart T. Hauser

15. Exploring the Mind Behind Unresolved Attachment: Lessons from and for Attachment-Based Interventions with Infants and Their Traumatized Mothers, Greg Moran, Heidi Neufeld Bailey, Karin Gleason, Carey Anne DeOliveira, and David R. Pederson

16. Hostile–Helpless States of Mind in the AAI: A Proposed Additional AAI Category with Implications for Identifying Disorganized Infant Attachment in High-Risk Samples, Sharon Melnick, Brent Finger, Sydney Hans, Matthew Patrick, and Karlen Lyons-Ruth

V. The AAI, Foster Care, and Adoptive Placements

17. Forecasting Outcomes in Previously Maltreated Children: The Use of the AAI in a Longitudinal Adoption Study, Miriam Steele, Jill Hodges, Jeanne Kanuik, Howard Steele, Saul Hillman, and Kay Asquith

18. Helping Foster Parents Change: The Role of Parental State of Mind, Johanna Bick and Mary Dozier

Afterword, Deborah Jacobvitz