Is Our Early Attachment Our Destiny? Finding the Link Between Attachment Patterns and Personality Disorders

Attachment is a recent popular topic that has entered the public eye, but psychological researchers have been investigating attachment patterns for decades. What is the relationship between early attachment personality disorders? Is there an overlap?

APS’s journal Clinical Psychological Science features an article with a new perspective into how attachment style can be linked to personality disorders. In this episode of Under the Cortex, the two psychological scientists who wrote the article, Madison Smith from Northwestern University and Susan South from Purdue University talk with Özge Gürcanlı Fischer Baum about the role of early relationships in shaping one’s personality by addressing the undeniable need of forming attachment with loved ones. The conversation starts with Smith’s academic journey into linking the fields of attachment and personality science. The researchers also highlight the fact that attachment researchers and personality disorder experts do not typically talk to each other, but this research provides an opportunity to reduce this gap.