CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 1,708Psychoanalysis and Psychopathology ResearchChild and Animal Learning DevelopmentAttachment and Relationship Dynamics

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 41 of the 41 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Attachment and reflective function: Their role in self-organization

Open access
FONAGY, PETER, TARGET, MARY·1997·Development and Psychopathology
DOI 10.1017/s0954579497001399
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

The paper traces the relationship between attachment processes and the development of the capacity to envision mental states in self and others. We suggest that the ability to mentalize, to represent behavior in terms of mental states, or to have “a theory of mind” is a key determinant of self-organization which is acquired in the context of the child's early social relationships. Evidence for an association between the quality of attachment relationship and reflective function in the parent and the child is reviewed and interpreted in the context of current models of theory of mind development. A model of the development of self-organization is proposed which has at its core the caregiver's ability to communicate understanding of the child's intentional stance. The implications of the model for pathological self-development are explored, with specific reference to the consequences of maltreatment.

Overview

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1017/s0954579497001399

Cites

41 of 41 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Verification

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Citations

Cites

Show all 41 references

Research works printed but not linked: 58

  1. In H. R. Schaffer (Ed.), The origins of human Ainsworth, M. D. S., Bell, S. M., & Stayton, D. J. (1971). Attachment and exploratory behaviour of one year social relations. New York: Academy Press.
  2. Bowlby, J. (1973). Attachment and loss, Vol. 2. Separa- relates of maltreated and nonmaltreated children's play behavior. Development and Psychopathology, 4, tion: Anxiety and anger. London: Hogarth Press and Institute of Psycho-Analysis. 257-270.
  3. Astington, J. (1996). What is theoretical about the child's Bowlby, J. (1980). Attachment and loss, Vol. 3. Loss: Sadness and depression. London: Hogarth Press and theory of mind?: A Vygotskian view of its develop- ment. In P. Carruthers & P. K. Smith (Eds.), Theories Institute of Psycho-Analysis.
  4. Bracken, B. A. (Ed.). (1996). Handbook of self-concept: of theories of mind (pp. 184-199). Cambridge: Cam- bridge University Press. Developmental, social and clinical considerations. New York: Wiley.
  5. Baron-Cohen, S., & Swettenham, J. (1996). The relation- Frye & C. Moore (Eds.), Children's theories of mind: Mental states and social understanding (pp. 271- ship between SAM and ToMM: Two hypotheses. In P. Carruthers & P. K. Smith (Eds.), Theories of theo- 289). Hilldale, NJ: Erlbaum.
  6. Bretherton, I., Bates, E., Benigni, L., Camaioni, L., & ries of mind (pp. 158-168). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  7. Bates, L. Benigni, I. Bretherton, L. Camaioni, & V. Volterra (Eds.), The emergence of symbols. New from autism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  8. Bartsch, K., & Wellman, H. M. (1989). Young children's York: Academic Press.
  9. Brownell, C. A., & Kopp, C. B. (1991). Common threads, attribution of action to beliefs and desires. Child De- velopment, 60, 946-964. diverse solutions: Concluding commentary. Develop- mental Review, 11, 288-303.
  10. Carlson, E., & Sroufe, L. A. (1995). Contribution of at- attachment, and the self system: Emergence of an in- ternal state lexicon in toddlers at high social risk. De- tachment theory to developmental psychopathology. In D. Cicchetti & D. J. Cohen (Eds.), Developmental velopment and Psychopathology, 6, 5-30.
  11. Belsky, J., Garduque, L., & Hrncir, E. (1984). Assessing Psychopathology. Vol. 1. Theory and methods (pp. 581-617). New York: Wiley.
  12. performance, competence and executive capacity in infant play: Relations to home environment and secu- Cassam, Q. (Ed.). (1994). Self-knowledge. Oxford: Ox- ford University Press. rity of attachment. Developmental Psychology, 20, 406-417.
  13. Churchland, P. S. (1986). Neurophilosophy. Cambridge, clinical and social significance (pp. 153-184). Hills- dale, NJ: Analytic Press. MA: MIT Press.
  14. Cicchetti, D., & Beeghly, M. (1987). Symbolic develop- Bidell, T. R., & Fischer, K. W. (1994). Developmental transitions in children's early on-line planning. In M. ment in maltreated youngsters: An organizational per- spective. In D. Cicchetti & M. Beeghly (Eds.), Atypi- M. Haith, J. B. Benson, R. J. Roberts, & B. F. Pen- nington (Eds.), Development of future-oriented pro- cal symbolic development. New directions for child development (Vol. 36, pp. 5-29). San Francisco: cesses. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  15. Block, J. H., Block, J., & Gjerde, P. F. (1986). The per- der (Rev. ed.). New York: Schocken Books (Original work published 1902). sonality of children prior to divorce. Child Develop- ment, 57, 827-840.
  16. Fischer, K. W., & Pipp, S. L. (1984). Development of the structures of unconscious thought. In K. Bowers & D. Crittenden, P. M. (1990). Internal representational models of attachment relationships. Journal of Infant Mental Meichenbaum (Eds.), The unconscious reconsidered (pp. 88-148). New York: Wiley. Health, 11, 259-277.
  17. Dennett, D. (1987). The intentional stance. Cambridge, tionship between belief-desire reasoning and a pro- jective measure of attachment security (SAT). British MA: MIT Press.
  18. Dennett, D. C. (1978). Brainstorms: Philosophical essays Journal of Developmental Psychology, 15, 51-61.
  19. Dias, M. G., & Harris, P. L. (1990). The influence of the A. (1991a). The capacity for understanding mental states: The reflective self in parent and child and its imagination on reasoning by young children. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 8, 305-318. significance for security of attachment. Infant Mental Health Journal, 13, 200-217.
  20. Dunn, J. (1996). The Emanuel Miller Memorial Lecture 1995. Children's relationships: Bridging the divide Fonagy, P., Steele, H., & Steele, M. (1991b). Maternal representations of attachment during pregnancy pre- between cognitive and social development. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 37, 507-518. dict the organization of infant-mother attachment at one year of age. Child Development, 62, 891-905.
  21. Dunn, J., & Brown, J. (1993). Early conversations about causality: Content, pragmatics, and developmental Fonagy, P., Steele, H., Steele, M., & Holder, J. (1997). Children securely attached in infancy perform better change. British Journal of Developmental Psychol- ogy, 11, 107-123. in belief-desire reasoning task at age five. Manuscript submitted to Child Development.
  22. Elicker, J., Englund, M., & Sroufe, L. A. (1992). Predicting R. Muir, & J. Kerr (Eds.), Attachment theory: Social, developmental and clinical perspectives (pp. 233- peer competence and peer relationships in childhood from early parent-child relationships. In R. Parke & 278). New York: Analytic Press.
  23. G. Ladd (Eds.), Family-peer relationships: Modes of linkage (pp. 77-106). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Reflective function manual for application to adult at- tachment interviews. London: University College
  24. Fonagy, P., & Target, M. (1995). Towards understanding Developmental pathways for self in relationships. In D. Cicchetti & T. H. Toth (Eds.), Rochester Sympo- violence: The use of the body and the role of the fa- ther. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 76, sium on Developmental Psychopathology: Vol. 5. Disorders and dysfunctions of the self (pp. 149-222). 487-502.
  25. Fonagy, P., & Target, M. (1996). Playing with reality: I. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press.
  26. Fischer, K. W., & Farrar, M. J. (1987). Generalisations Theory of mind and the normal development of psy- chic reality. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, about generalisation: How a theory of skill develop- ment explains both generality and specificity. Interna- 77, 217-234.
  27. Gergely, G., & Csibra, G. (1997). Teleological reasoning tional Journal of Psychology, 22, 643-677.
  28. Eds.), Constructivists approaches to development.
  29. Goldman, A. (1993). Philosophical applications of cogni- Johnson, M. K., & Multhaup, K. S. (1992). Emotion and MEM. In S. Christianson (Ed.), The handbook of tive science. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
  30. Gopnik, A. (1993). How we know our minds: The illu- emotion and memory: Research and theory (pp. 33- 66). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. sion of first-person knowledge of intentionality. Be- havioral and Brain Sciences, 16, 1-14, 29-113.
  31. Kazdin, A. E. (1995). Conduct disorder in childhood and adolescence (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
  32. Carruthers & P. K. Smith (Eds.), Theories of theo- ries of mind (pp. 169-183). Cambridge: Cambridge 30, 893-917.
  33. Killen, M., & Nucci, L. P. (1995). Morality, autonomy University Press.
  34. Gopnik, A., & Astington, J. W. (1988). Children's under- and social conflict. In M. Killen & D. Hart (Eds.), Morality in everyday life (pp. 52-86). Cambridge: standing of representational change and its relation to the understanding of false belief and the appearance- Cambridge University Press.
  35. Gordon, R. M. (1995). Simulation without introspection origins of "Theory of Mind." Psychological Review, 94, 412-426.
  36. or inference from me to you. In T. Stone & M. Davies (Eds.), Mental simulation: Evaluations and applica- Leslie, A. M. (1994). TOMM, ToBy, and agency: Core architecture and domain specificity. In L. Hirsch- tions (pp. 101-119). Oxford: Blackwell.
  37. G., & Unzner, L. (1985). Maternal sensitivity and newborn orienting responses as related to quality of New York: Cambridge University Press.
  38. Bretherton & E. Waters (Eds.), Growing points in attachment the- theory of mind. Child Development, 64, 348-371.
  39. Londerville, S., & Main, M. (1981). Security of attach- ory and research. Monographs of the Society for Re- search in Child Development, 50(1-2, Serial No. ment, compliance and maternal training method in the second year of life. Developmental Psychology, 17, 209), (pp. 233-256).
  40. Harris, P. L. (1992). From simulation to folk psychology: analysis (pp. 329-351).
  41. Bretherton & E. Waters Hart, D., & Killen, M. (1995). Introduction: Perspectives on morality in everyday life. In M. Killen & D. Hart (Eds.), Growing points in attachment theory and re- search. Monographs of the Society for Research in (Eds.), Morality in everyday life (pp. 1-22). Cam- bridge: Cambridge University Press. Child Development, 50 (pp. 66-104).
  42. Mele, A. R. (1992). Springs of action: Understanding in- Hopkins, J. (1992). Psychoanalysis, interpretation, and science. In J. Hopkins & A. Savile (Eds.), Psycho- tentional behaviour. New York: Oxford University Press. analysis, mind and art: Perspectives on Richard Wollheim (pp. 3-34). Oxford: Blackwell.
  43. Horowitz, M. J. (1995). Defensive control states and per- son schemas. In T. Shapiro & R. N. Emde (Eds.), Baron-Cohen, H. Tager-Flusberg, & D.Cohen (Eds.), Understanding Other Minds: Perspectives from Au- Research in psychoanalysis: Process, development, outcome (pp. 67-89). Madison, CT: International tism. New York: Oxford University Press.
  44. Morton, J., & Frith, U. (1995). Causal modeling: A struc- Universities Press.
  45. Isabella, R., & Belsky, J. (1991). Interactional synchrony tural approach to developmental psychology. In D. Cicchetti & D. J. Cohen (Eds.), Developmental psy- and the origins of infant-mother attachment: A repli- cation study. Child Development, 62, 373-384. chopathology: Vol. 1. Theory and methods (pp. 357- 390). New York: John Wiley.
  46. Neisser, U. (1991). Two perceptually given aspects of the in transition: Infancy to childhood (pp. 281-307). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. self and their development. Developmental Review, 11, 197-209.
  47. Sroufe, L. A. (1996). Emotional development. New York: Cambridge University Press.
  48. Noam, G. G. (1990). Beyond Freud and Piaget: Bio- graphical world-Interpersonal self. In T. E. Wren Steele, H., Steele, M., & Fonagy, P. (1996). Associations among attachment classifications of mothers, fathers, (Ed.), The moral domain (pp. 360-399). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. and their infants: Evidence for a relationship-specific perspective. Child Development, 67, 541-555.
  49. Perner, J., Leekam, S., & Wimmer, H. (1987). Three- The development of psychic reality from a theoretical perspective. International Journal of Psycho-Analy- year-olds' difficulty in understanding false belief: Cognitive limitation, lack of knowledge, or pragmatic sis, 77, 459-479.
  50. Tronick, E. (1989). Emotions and emotional communica- misunderstanding? British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 5, 125-137. tion in infants. American Psychologist, 44, 112-119.
  51. van der Kolk, B. (1994). The body keeps the score: Mem- Perner, J., Ruffman, T., & Leekman, S. R. (1994). Theory of mind is contagious: You catch it from your sibs. ory and the evolving psychobiology of post-traumatic stress. Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 1, 253-265. Child Development, 65, 1228-1238.
  52. Shantz & W. W. Hartup (Eds.), Conflict in child and ment: A meta-analysis on the predictive validity of the Adult Attachment Interview. Psychological Bulle- adolescent development (pp. 301-329). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. tin, 117, 387-403.
  53. Ruffman, T., Perner, J., Naito, M., Parkin, L., & Clem- ment-based interventions on maternal sensitivity and infant security. Journal of Child Psychology and Psy- ents, W. (in press). Older (but not younger) siblings facilitate false belief understanding. Child Develop- chiatry, 36, 225-248.
  54. Schneider-Rosen, K., & Cicchetti, D. (1984). The rela- tionship between affect and cognition in maltreated Netherlands. International Journal of Behavioral De- velopment, 14, 375-394. infants: Quality of attachment and the development of visual self-recognition. Child Development, 55, 648-Vygotsky, L. S. (1967). Play and its role in the mental development of the child. Soviet Psychology, 5, 6-18. 658.
  55. Shaw, D. S., Owens, E. B., Vondra, J. I., Keenan, K., & York: Oxford University Press.
  56. Winnicott, D. W. (1960). Ego distortion in terms of true Winslow, E. B. (1996). Early risk factors and path- ways in the development of early disruptive behavior and false self, The maturational process and the facil- itating environment (pp. 140-152). New York: Inter- problems. Development and Psychopathology, 8, 679-699. national Universities Press.
  57. Winnicott, D. W. (1965). The maturational process and Slade, A. (1987). Quality of attachment and early sym- bolic play. Developmental Psychology, 17, 326-335. the facilitating environment. London: Hogarth Press.
  58. Smith, P. K. (1996). Language and the evolution of mind- reading. In P. Carruthers & P. K. Smith (Eds.), Theo- of other people's feelings and beliefs. Child Develop- ment, 66, 1472-1492. ries of theories of mind (pp. 344-354). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Items 801–900 of 1,000

Related

See all

Metadata

Authors
FONAGY, P., & TARGET, M.
Affiliations
University College London (GB)
ORCID
FONAGY, PETER
Venue
Development and Psychopathology
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Published
1997-12
Volume
9
Issue
4
Pages
679-700
ISSN
  • 0954-5794 (ISSN-L)
  • 1469-2198
DOI
10.1017/s0954579497001399
OpenAlex
W2121454967
Cited by
1,708
References
41
Citations by year
2026: 76 · 2025: 61 · 2024: 69 · 2023: 70 · 2022: 105 · 2021: 90 · 2020: 77 · 2019: 85 · 2018: 93 · 2017: 98 · 2016: 115 · 2015: 86 · 2014: 101 · 2013: 71 · 2012: 60
FWCI
16.34
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
www.cambridge.org/core/terms (unspecified)
Locations
  • Development and Psychopathology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychoanalysis and Psychopathology Research
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
Keywords
attachment, reflective functioning, self-organization, mentalization, theory of mind, parent-child relationship, child development, child abuse
MeSH terms
Adult, Aggression, Attention, Child, Child Development, Female, Frustration, Humans, Internal-External Control, Male, Models, Psychological, Motivation, Object Attachment, Parent-Child Relations, Temperament

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review