A Response to Controversies in Attachment Disorders
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A Response to Controversies in Attachment Disorders Maxine L. Weinman1,2
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018
Abstract This paper reviews Dr. Jean Mercer’s 2017 manuscript on Conventional and Unconventional Perspectives on attachment disorders. I will discuss assessment and summary of attachment disorders and the evaluation of attachment therapies in social work education and practice. I will conclude with the role of attachment theory in social work education and practice and the evaluation of evidence-based research theory and practice in attachment disorders. Keywords Attachment theory · Attachment disorders · Conventional treatment · Unconventional treatment Dr. Mercer (2017) warns therapists, quasi-therapists, parents, educators, courts and organizations on the dangers of using unconventional practices for attachment problems. She delves into the 2006 task force report published in the journal Child Maltreatment and provides a 10-year follow-up from 2006 to 2016 which examines treatment of attachment disorders particularly as it affects conventional and unconventional perspectives. This is an ambitious paper on the consequences of the report. Her expertise is in seeking out peer reviewed and non-peer reviewed sources such as from the Internet, court testimony, Google searches, continuing education (CE) course materials, case studies and personal interviews. For example, she presents a discussion from an array of sources such as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, (American Psychiatric Association, 2013) series as well as the Institute for Attachment and Child Development. She discusses views of Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD), holding therapies and Internet treatment sites. Full references to these sites are given to the reader. She uses “Nancy Thomas parenting” to demonstrate an intrusive Attachment Therapy/Holding Therapy (AT/HT). She describes horror at the practice of holding therapy which led to a license revocation for the therapist. Although initially approved for CEs, * Maxine L. Weinman [email protected]; [email protected] 1
Graduate College of Social Work, University of Houston, 110HA Social Work Building – Room 419, Houston, TX 77204‑4013, USA
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
2
the American Psychological Association no longer approves it. Dr. Mercer states she was the one who complained to the APA about the Nancy Thomas parenting presentations. She questions sites when claims are made without empirical support. The manuscript provides a voice for her advocacy against unconventional treatment of attachment disorders which she believes are dangerous and incongruent with established knowledge about child welfare. But she is also clear about the importance of professionals taking leadership in this field of child welfare and being educated on how to evaluate supported as well as un-supported interventions particularly among foster care, adopted and/or institutionalized children. Throughout
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