At last! The AAI manual is published

In Assessing Adult Attachment: A Dynamic-Maturational Approach to Discourse Analysis, co-authors Crittenden and Landini offer a concise yet comprehensive guide to discourse analysis of the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), rooted in the DMM. The interview seeks information about adults’ childhood experiences with attachment figures and protection from danger. The resulting narrative reveals the adult’s current response to threats and danger and how the mind processes information in response to specific stimuli. Since this method focuses on the structure of speech (i.e. discourse markers) rather than the content of the narrative, the underlying preconscious meaning of the speaker’s communication is maintained as opposed to being concealed by conscious thought process. At the same time, the DMM-AAI allows the speaker to tell a story in his or her own way, thus preserving his or her reality.

A New Approach to DMM-AAI

The DMM-AAI has many advantages over other methods of discourse analysis. First and foremost, unlike Main and Goldwyn’s (M & G) AAI where infant classification provides the basis for adult classification, in the DMM attachment strategies evolve throughout the lifespan. Second, the M&G-AAI is based on outdated work in the cognitive sciences while the DMM-AAI is open to and continually integrates new findings from cognitive and neurobiological theory and research. Third, the DMM was derived from AAIs from over 20 countries and included individuals from normative samples, outpatient and hospitalized psychiatric patients as well as incarcerated individuals while the M&G-AAI was developed from observations of middle-class, low-risk samples. Fourth, due to lack of empirical support, the concept of disorganization has been eliminated from the DMM-AAI. With these key issues in mind, the new approach to discourse analysis presented by Crittenden and Landini is timely and necessary.

Organized Approach Simplifies Understanding

Written clearly for a wide interdisciplinary audience, the book is organized into three sections. Part one outlines the DMM approach to attachment, including a brief overview of the history of attachment theory and the constructs that underpin the AAI. Part two details the DMM-AAI classificatory system including an overview of Type B, A and C attachment strategies as well as the noted discourse markers and their psychological relevance to each attachment strategy. Finally, in part three, the authors offer a guide to applications of the DMM-AAI, including a description of the process behind transforming an AAI classification into a treatment plan, a review of available validity studies, and future directions for using the AAI in order to further our understanding of human attachment and adaptation and psychopathology.

Essential Reading for Researchers, Clinicians & Others

This volume will be useful to those in the fields of developmental psychology, psychiatry, psychotherapy and other health professions (i.e. nurses, social workers) working with individuals and families at risk for psychopathology. It is essential reading for researchers studying human development, clinicians seeking a complementary approach for diagnostic assessment and intervention planning, and even expert witnesses testifying in child protection cases. While this book is not intended to replace direct training in the coding of the AAI, it encourages the reader to further explore the DMM approach to discourse analysis within the context of the AAI. In short, Crittenden and Landini adroitly guide us through research, assessment, and treatment to promote adult mental health and reduce psychological suffering through the exploration of attachment over the lifespan.

Panagiota Tryphonopoulos, Ph.D Candidate, RN

Crittenden, P.M., & Landini, A. (2011). Assessing adult attachment: A dynamic-maturational approach to discourse analysis. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.