Reflections on the reception of attachment theory by psychoanalysts. A review of publications.

This article explores the reception and response of the psychoanalytic community to attachment theory by reviewing articles, with 'attachment' as a keyword, published up until December 2020 in the top seven (according to impact factor) English-language psychoanalysis journals in the ISI Web of Knowledge. A category system was designed and applied to classify the articles which met the inclusion criteria.Since 1996, there has been a significant increase in publications that compare attachment theory and psychoanalysis, explore avenues of integration, analyse different theoretical and technical aspects, or make eclectic use of concepts from both models. Overall, however, few articles referring to attachment (246, representing 1.8% of the sample) have been published in the analysed journals, and of those, many hardly make any mention of psychoanalysis.Contributions by the attachment theory pioneer, John Bowlby, emerged from psychoanalytic practice, with attachment theory reinforcing the more relational approaches of psychoanalysis. Nonetheless, a main conclusion of our study is that attachment and psychoanalysis follow parallel or divergent paths.

Psychological Distress in Erectile Dysfunction: The Moderating Role of Attachment.

INTRODUCTION: In clinical consultations, men with erectile dysfunction do not always express personal, sexual, and interpersonal concerns. AIM: We explore whether the attenuated impact of erectile dysfunction may be explained by a regulation of negative affect that causes activation of the attachment system. METHODS: The study sample consisted of 69 men diagnosed with erectile dysfunction, mean (SD) age 56 (10.83) years. Participants completed self-reported questionnaires to assess erectile dysfunction severity, attachment style, sexual satisfaction, relationship satisfaction, and psychological symptoms. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: The moderating role of attachment between erectile dysfunction and sexual satisfaction, relationship satisfaction, and psychological distress was evaluated using multiple linear regression and moderation analysis. RESULTS: All men in the sample had high attachment avoidance, distributed between the dismissive-avoidant (69.6%) and fearful-avoidant (30.4%) substyles, but low levels of psychological symptoms. Despite their erectile dysfunction, 27 patients (39.1%) rated their sexual life as satisfactory, and 46 (66.7%) rated their relationship with their partner as satisfactory. Men with fearful-avoidant attachment reported feeling more sexual desire and less sexual satisfaction than men with dismissive-avoidant attachment. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that sexual satisfaction variance was explained by erectile dysfunction severity, attachment anxiety, and relationship satisfaction scores. Moderation analysis showed that attachment anxiety, but not relationship satisfaction, moderated the impact of erectile dysfunction on sexual satisfaction. CONCLUSION: The avoidance dimension of attachment, which tends to be high in patients with erectile dysfunction, involves deactivation of the sexual system in an effort to minimize the emotional distress associated with erectile dysfunction, which damages sexual and relationship intimacy and delays the decision to obtain professional help. The presence of high attachment avoidance and the moderating value of attachment anxiety allow us to propose specific treatments for these men. Maestre-Lorén F, Castillo-Garayoa JA, López-i-Martín X, et al. Psychological Distress in Erectile Dysfunction: The Moderating Role of Attachment. Sex Med 2021;9:100436.