Attachment and Multi-motivational Theory
Format: Zoom (via Eventbrite)
Speaker: Dr Mauricio Cortina
Date: Saturday 22nd May 14.00 – 15.30 BST
IAN & AGIP Members fee £35 (enter members discount code at point of purchase) | Non-members fee: £50
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/143597111827
This Seminar is also Week 10 of our PG Certificate in Attachment Theory. Registered PG Cert students will be given a code to access free tickets on the Eventbrite page on the day of the seminar.
In this lecture Dr Mauricio Cortina explores the concept of attachment theory as a motivational-behavioural system. Understanding attachment as a distinct motivational system, proposes an evolutionary function, in the case of attachment this is protection and care, as well as activating conditions, perceived danger and distress, and temporary deactivating stimulus, provision of protection and comfort. The attachment motivational system is closely linked with the separate motivational systems of caregiving and exploration/play. Together these three motivational systems present as the commonly understood ‘affectional bond’ of attachment.
Drawing on Bowlby’s evolutionary and systems thinking, Dr Cortina’s theory proposes four additional basic motivational systems, each with their unique evolutionary function and regulatory (activating/deactivating) factors: the sexual system (with the evolutionary function of procreation and regulated of attraction and lust), the social engagement system (with the evolutionary function of communication and intersubjectivity, regulated by the need for mutual regulation), the egalitarian-affiliative system (with the evolutionary function of cooperation, regulated by the group identity) and the hierarchical ranking system (with the evolutionary function of control over resources, regulated by power relations). He outlines the important clinical and broad social implications of the main ways in which these motivations can interact.
About the Speaker:
Dr Mauricio Cortina is a psychiatrist and psychotherapist with over 35 years of experience working in the Washington DC area. As well as his clinical practice, Dr Cortina is the Director of Attachment and Human Development Center, Washington School of Psychiatry, and President of Inter-American Attachment Network. He is author of a number of books, chapters and articles on subjects of attachment theory, intersubjectivity and humanistic approaches to psychotherapy including the books ‘Attachment Theory and the Psychoanalytic Process’ and ‘A Prophetic Analyst. Erich Fromm’s Contributions to Psychoanalysis’.