The Infinite Mind: Attachment
Week of January 2, 2002
It's human to connect. Without the opportunity for consistent relationships early in life, though, development founders. This show explores attachment disorder and attachment problems that affect children who have been abused and neglected. Guests include psychiatrist Dr. Charles Zeanah, clinical psychologist Robert Karen, Thais Tepper, the founder of the Network for the Post-Institutionalized Child, and Joyce Peters, the adoptive mother of a child with attachment disorder.
Host Dr. Fred Goodwin begins the show by noting that attachment disorder is a relatively new term that was absent from psychiatric textbooks as little as five years ago. Since then, an increase in adoptions from Eastern Europe, Russia and China and a new appreciation for the importance of environment in shaping children have brought attachment problems to the fore. Dr. Goodwin notes that the term attachment disorder is reserved for children who are so damaged by abuse and neglect they don't bond with caretakers and wreak havoc on everyone around them. Many of them, Dr. Goodwin points out, make remarkable recoveries.
Joyce Peters then discusses her daughter, Elizabeth, who was abandoned by her birth mother at the age of four. After that, Elizabeth was moved from 10 foster homes until, at the age of 8½, she was adopted by Peters. Elizabeth had tantrums, stole, lied, played with fire and rebuffed contact with Peters. Eventually, a doctor diagnosed Elizabeth with attachment disorder. She has since received therapy. Peters recounts her daughter's progress and says, since Elizabeth can now talk about her traumatic past, says she's confident Elizabeth will make it. You can e-mail Joyce Peters at joy2522@aol.com.
