Attachment and Divorce

Abstract

Abstract This paper, based on the literature on divorce and on attachment and on the authors' clinical experience as family therapists, argues that the interaction of the spouses' attachment styles strongly affects the emotional and behavioral processes involved in their separation and divorce. Using Ainsworth's taxonomy of secure, anxious/ambivalent, and avoidant attachment styles, it presents six types of couples with different combinations of these styles (3 2) and draws a picture of the dynamics of each that are likely to develop in the divorce process. It also discusses issues related to therapeutic and legal intervention for each type of couple.