Adaptation and mental health

Abstract

In the 1990s, Jeremy Holmes and Otto Kernberg alleged that, despite significant strengths, the theory of mentalization has risked becoming a disempowering, deficit-focused model of mental ill health. One resource available to Fonagy and colleagues in responding to this concern was attachment research, which had developed a model of attachment strategies as evolutionarily-primed responses to adverse conditions. We will survey the reflections of Fonagy and colleagues regarding three attachment theorists: Mary Main, Pat Crittenden, and Jay Belsky. The synthesis proposed by Fonagy and colleagues will then be described, as well as their related reflections on vigilance, trust, learning, and the structure of mental health symptoms.