I know that early childhood attachment is essential to mental health and that lack thereof causes serious problems. But I also think that, given the awful pattern of abusive therapies and plain old money-making scam therapies that have built up around amateur diagnoses of attachment disorder, we should be careful about engaging in or promoting such diagnoses. There is no reason to think that either of the recent headline-grabbing shooters lacked an early childhood environment that would have promoted normal attachment. A lot of other things can cause violent behavior, including inborn genetic traits (which could, among other things, render a child unable to form normal attachments regardless of environment) and later life experiences and substance abuse.
There is no reason to think that either of the recent headline-grabbing shooters lacked an early childhood environment that would have promoted normal attachment.
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Sorry. That’s simply not true.
All the more so given his blogging docs.
Also, in my 50+ years of intense observations,
I HAVE NEVER KNOWN;
NEVER OBSERVED;
NEVER HEARD OF
any offspring doing anything close to such things . . .
WITHOUT dreadfully poor attachment.
I have had many Christians say to me . . .
ahhhhh . . . but parents can be perfect parents and the child can still turn out screwy.
I have had many bring such cases which supposedly fit that description.
IN 100% OF SUCH CASES, I WAS ABLE AFTER JUST 3-5 QUESTIONS TO DETERMINE THAT HEALTHY ATTACHMENT DID *NOT* occur.
IF 10% of what the shooter in this case said about his mother was true—even healthy motherly attachment did not occur.
If 10% of the implications of the father’s evident absence from emotional bonded connectedness to this son is true, the father did not contribute significant healthy attachment.
If 10% of the indications about super strict Christian discipline efforts are true, this son did not experience healthy attachment.
“no reason to think . . . lacked an early childhood environment that would have promoted normal attachment.”
is simply wholesale untrue.
There are ABUNDANT reasons to believe that. More than a few.
Far more than none.
“inborn genetic traits . . . rendering a child unable to form normal attachments . . .”
I can allow such is theoretically possible.
And, I have known of children super difficult to bond with.
Autism is a challenge to many parents beyond comprehension to parents without such challenges.
Nevertheless, Great numbers of parents with such children with such challenges DO BOND SUFFICIENTLY TO AFFORD SERIOUSLY WONDERFUL HEALTHY ATTACHMENT.
IT IS POSSIBLE EVEN WITH SUCH DEFICITS.
Sometimes there’s a lack of persistent will to sufficiently go the 2nd mile.
Sometimes there’s a lack of skill and understanding to pull it off and too insufficient a persistence to learn such skills.
Failing to learn the necessary skills does not EQUAL IMPOSSIBLE.