@article{GojmandeMillanMillan, author = {Gojman de Mill{\´a}n, Sonia and Mill{\´a}n, Salvador}, title = {Mental collapse as "disorganized attachment": A dynamic understanding for clinicians}, series = {International Forum of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 28 (No. 3, 2019), pp. 173-179.}, journal = {International Forum of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 28 (No. 3, 2019), pp. 173-179.}, abstract = {Unresolved loss and unresolved trauma in adult mothers, and the commonly disorganized attachment pattern developed by their infants, have been repeatedly reported in longitudinal research literature as a crucial correlate or precedent of severe pathology. We describe and illustrate how unresolved loss and unresolved trauma are manifested in verbatim-transcribed language and how they are to be detected, so that psychoanalysts and clinicians in general are able to distinguish them and understand how such >states of mind< evidence the process of fragmentation they involve. We follow each example with a resolved transcript so it can be contrasted with a nonresolved case. We then describe excerpts of a taped >disorganized infant< - an example of infants who are usually babies of unresolved mothers, as shown during the Adult Attachment Interview. The analyst's ability to identify and understand these >states of mind< and the subsequent sensitive reflection on the transcendental role of primary traumatic relations, which are involved in fear and the destructive dynamics of mental fragmentation - as seen in empirical research on attachment - can facilitate a resourceful integrative analytic scrutiny of the processes gone through by patients, and encourage the discovery of alternatives for working through the disturbing experience.}, language = {en} }