In earlier posts I have argued that the Grand Bowlbian Attachment Environment (GBAE) holds the behavioral systems of caregiving, attachment, and sex. Bowlby’s ethological studies (e.g., the study of animal behavior) revealed to him that one of the greatest challenges facing the animal world was how to go about balancing and harmonizing the motivations arising from different motivational (or behavioral) systems that often have conflicting goals. Bowlby theorized that balancing and harmonizing the motivations arising from different behavioral systems was a pressing challenge that also confronted humans. In this update I’d like to point to several examples of what potentially happens when you “mess” (to use a very technical term) with the Grand Bowlbian Attachment Environment.
- I recently attended a workshop designed for people working in the mental health care profession. The workshop was on ethics. The presenter told us that the number one ethical violation within the mental health care profession—social work, counseling, psychological and psychiatric services, etc.—is sex between professionals and their clients or patients.
- I was listening to the evening news the other night and a news piece came on that caught my attention. The reporter was talking about the number one reason teachers—both men and women—lost their teaching licenses. Yup, sexual relationships between teachers and their students.
- This morning I was listening to a radio program that features a local non-profit. This morning the New Mexico chapter of the YWCA was featured. Apparently the YWCA in New Mexico is set to open a new transitional living center for homeless women vets. The spokesperson said that many times homeless women vets are on the streets because of complications associated with PTSD or post traumatic stress disorder. But what the spokesperson said next really caught my attention because it was the first time I had heard of this PTSD subset. The spokesperson said that many of these homeless women vets suffer from MST or military sexual trauma. The spokesperson mentioned that she was familiar with a case where a homeless woman vet was on the streets with a child. This female vet was allegedly sexually assaulted by a superior officer. As a result of the assault this vet became pregnant. The YWCA spokesperson mentioned that the new transitional living center will be able to accommodate women and their children.
- Hopefully I do not have to spend much time on all the stories that have captured the headlines over the past many years concerning Catholic sex abuse cases against children.
I mention these examples because in my mind they point out what potentially happens when you artificially mess with the Grand Bowlbian Attachment Environment. Again, you cannot mess with one behavioral system within the GBAE without affecting the other behavioral systems. In the above examples, abuses are appearing in the realm of the sexual behavioral system. However, I would argue that causes must be framed at a systems level, as some type of disturbance within the Grand Bowlbian Attachment Environment, which, I argue, holds the behavioral systems of attachment, caregiving, and sex. Consider the following quote from my February 16th, 2011, post entitled How Much Do You Know About What You Don’t Know?
Carole Pistole presents [an interesting theory] in her 1999 paper Preventing Teenage Pregnancy: Contributions from Attachment Theory (J. Mental Health Counseling, April 1999, vol. 21) (executive summary available). Pistole puts forth the idea that if cravings for attachment and caregiving early in life are somehow thwarted, these thwarted cravings may, 1) influence the later development of the sexual behavioral system, and, 2) cause sexual acting out that could lead to unintended teen pregnancy. Taking a very connectionist view, Pistole suggests that disruptions in the development of the sexual behavioral system may be traced back to disruptions in the early attachment and/or caregiving environments.
Can you think of other examples where the Grand Bowlbian Attachment Environment is messed with? If so, please leave a comment (registration required).
