Attachment theory and psychosis : current perspectives and future directions

Foreword by Max Birchwoof -- Chapter 1: Introduction / Katherine Berry, Sandra Bucci and Adam N. Danquah -- Part 1: Symptoms, functioning and aetiology -- Chapter 2: The Specific Role of Insecure Attachment in Paranoid Delusions / Richard P. Bentall and Kasiatarzyna Sitko -- Chapter 3: How Attachment Theory Can Develop Understandings Of, and Therapy For, Distressing Voices / Katherine Berry, John Read, Filippo Varese and Sandra Bucci -- Chapter 4: Promoting Recovery from Negative Symptoms: An Attachment Theory Perspective / Hamish McLeod and Helen Griffiths -- Chapter 5: Attachment and Social Functioning in Psychosis / Jasper E. Palmier-Claus, Nikie Korver-Nieberg, Anne-Kathrin Fett and Shannon Couture -- Chapter 6: Parenting in Psychosis from an Attachment Perspective / Susanne Harder and Kristine Davidsen -- Chapter 7: The Neurobiology of Attachment and Psychosis Risk: A Theoretical Integration / Benjamin K. Brent, Martin Debbané and Peter Fonagy -- Part 2: Therapeutic approaches -- Chapter 8: Bringing Together Psychodynamic and Attachment Perspectives on Psychosis / Alison Summers and Gwen Adshead -- Chapter 9: Cognitive Interpersonal Therapy for Recovery in Psychosis / Dr Angus MacBeth, Professor Andrew Gumley and Professor Matthias Schwannauer -- Chapter 10: Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) for Psychosis: Contrasts and Parallels with Attachment Theory and Implications for Practice / Dr Peter James Taylor and Dr Claire Seddon -- Chapter 11: Attachment Themes in Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT) for Psychosis / Charles Heriot-Maitland and Angela Kennedy -- Chapter 12: Cultural Variations in Attachment and Psychosis: The Application of Attachment Theory to Inform Therapeutic Work with Black Caribbean Familie / Amy Degnan, Lucy Shattock and Dawn Edge -- Part 3: Individual and organisational perspectives -- Chapter 13: Making Sense of Voices: Perspectives from the Hearing Voices Movement / Eleanor Longden and Dirk Corstens -- Chapter 14: How Can Attachment Theory Inform the Design and Delivery of Mental Health Services? / Sandra Bucci, Katherine Berry, Adam Danquah and Lucy Johnstone -- Chapter 15: The Significance of the Clinician's Felt Experience: Using Attachment Theory to Understand the Therapist's Emotional Experience when Working with Someone with Psychosis / Max Linington -- Chapter 16: Cross-cutting Themes and Future Directions / Katherine Berry, Adam Danquah and Sandra Bucci.

Attachment Theory and Psychosis: Current Perspectives and Future Directions is the first book to provide a practical guide to using attachment theory in the assessment, formulation and treatment of a range of psychological problems that can arise as a result of experiencing psychosis.

Katherine Berry, Sandra Bucci and Adam N. Danquah, along with an international selection of contributors, expertly explore how attachment theory can inform theoretical understanding of the development of psychosis, psychological therapy and mental health practice with service users with psychosis. In the first section of the book, contributors describe the application of attachment theory to the understanding of paranoia, voice-hearing, negative symptoms, and relationship difficulties in psychosis. In the second section of the book, the contributors consider different approaches to working therapeutically with psychosis and demonstrate how these approaches draw on the key principles of attachment theory. In the final section, contributors address individual and wider organisation perspectives, including a voice-hearer perspective on formulating the relationship between voices and life history, how attachment principles can be used to organise the provision of mental health services, and the influence of mental health workers’ own attachment experiences on therapeutic work. The book ends by summarising current perspectives and highlighting future directions.

Written by leading mental health practitioners and researchers, covering a diverse range of professional backgrounds, topics and theroetical schools, this book is significant in guiding clinicians, managers and commissioners in how attachment theory can inform everyday practice. Attachment Theory and Psychosis: Current Perspectives and Future Directions will be an invaluable resource for mental health professionals, especially psychologists and other clinicians focusing on humanistic treatments, as well as postgraduate students training in these areas.