Creating the Capacity for Attachment: Treating Addictions and the Alienated Self

Detached, alienated people, many of them functioning with a pathologically developed false self, barely navigate life's challenges. Our cultural emphasis on autonomy and separateness has led to a retreat from valuing interpersonal, communal dependence and has greatly contributed to a rise in the number of people whose suffering is often expressed in addictions and personality disorders. Using actual patient material including diaries and letters, Karen Walant's Creating the Capacity for Attachment shows how 'immersive moments' in therapy-moments of complete understanding between patient and therapist-are powerful enough to dislodge the alienated, detached self from its hiding place and enable the individual to begin incorporating his or her inner core into his or her external, social self.

Karen B. Walant, Ph.D., is a psychotherapist in private practice in Katonah, New York.