Revisiting John Bowlby: Clinical Implications of Attachment Theory and Research
Format: Zoom (via Eventbrite)
Speaker: Dr Miriam Steele
Date: Saturday 23rd October 14.00 – 15.30 BST
IAN & AGIP Members fee £35 (enter members discount code at point of purchase) | Non-members fee: £50
This Seminar is also Week 21 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 seminar, Dr Miriam Steele leads an exploration of how, in formulating attachment theory, John Bowlby did so from his original thinking and creative synthesis, integrating from a range of disciplines, including psychoanalysis, clinical studies of bereavement processes, animal behavior and ethology, and cognitive and developmental psychology. Throughout this exploration Dr Steele will draw from across Bowlby’s work, from some of his early writings on his work with orphaned and separated children for the World Health Organization, to the more recently published selection of Bowlby’s unpublished papers. Bowlby’s motto of “no therapy without research and no research without therapy” will be explored with special attention to empirical studies of intergenerational patterns of attachment, signposts of unresolved loss and trauma and links with the contemporary concept of reflective functioning and mentalization.
About the Speaker:
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.