Transference and Countertransference from an Attachment Perspective: A Guide for Professional Caregivers

Abstract

D espite its popularity in the British Isles, Heard et al.’s (2009/2012) Attachment Therapy with Adolescents and Adults: Theory and Practice Post Bowlby is little known in North America. Working from the same theoretical base, Transference and Countertransference from an Attachment Perspective: A Guide for Professional Caregivers emphasizes the role of biologically based self-systems in emotional regulation. Although not the main focus of this book, this paradigm is readily applicable to group contexts. The group therapist can work with these self-systems in group to deepen transference work and to help clients find effective methods for self-soothing. Some systems of selfregulation seem to require interpersonal connection with an empathic other while others do not. The seven systems used to restore a sense of emotional grounding in the individual are: a care-giving /care-seeking self-system, an affectionate sexual self-system, selfdefense (psychological defense mechanisms) self-system, sharing interests with peers self-system, a self that seeks to build an external environment (a supportive or unsupportive physical home base), and a system within the self, known as the internal environment (the individual’s internalized object world which also can be supportive or unsupportive). Although based in Bowlby’s work, McClusky and O’Toole use a complex metapsychology to guide the therapist in restoring the adult to robust functioning. In this most recent volume, McClusky and O’Toole posit an overarching “keystone” self-system. The keystone system is the central system out of the seven that the developing individual relies upon to feel secure. If overwhelmed, the six other basic self-systems may International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 72: 397–399, 2022 © 2022 The American Group Psychotherapy Association, Inc. ISSN: 0020-7284 print/1943-2836 online DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00207284.2022.2089886