On the Psychoanalytic Legacy of John Bowlby: Attachment Theory, Reflective Functioning and Therapeutic Action
November 10, 2020
On the Psychoanalytic Legacy of John Bowlby: Attachment Theory, Reflective Functioning and Therapeutic Action
Presenter: Miraim Steele PhD
Discussant: Diana Diamond PhD
Dr. Miriam Steele will speak on the legacy of Dr. John Bowlby and the psychoanalytic
roots of attachment theory which have initiated a corpus of work in developmental and
clinical psychology . Trained in England, Dr. Steele knew and worked with Bowlby during
his lifetime and can be considered one of his direct successors. The talk will elaborate on
the legacy of John Bowlby’s writings and focus on the psychoanalytic roots of
attachment theory which have initiated a corpus of empirical work in developmental and
clinical psychology. This presentation will outline the concept of reflective functioning,
covering its origins in attachment theory and intergenerational longitudinal research and
highlight the clinical relevance of the concept, as a therapeutic goal, especially with
respect to patients with backgrounds of trauma.
