Practical Applications of Transforming the Attachment Relationship to God

Practical Applications of Transforming the Attachment Relationship to God discusses four distinct attachment relationships to the God of personal spiritual experience and considers how each of these relationships has implications for working with clients in psychotherapy. Geoff Goodman uses Attachment-Informed Psychotherapy (AIP) to explore the connection between a relationship to God and a relationship to caregivers during childhood. By analyzing the attachment relationships evident in the lives of four public figures-human rights activist Coretta Scott King, Jewish Holocaust victim Anne Frank, Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill W., and founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud-this book demonstrates how their attachment relationships with their caregivers during childhood helped to determine the quality of their attachment relationship (or nonrelationship) to God in later life. Goodman demonstrates how to use AIP to work with these attachment relationships, formulating a psychotherapeutic treatment plan for each one with the goal of restoring wholeness and unity. This book will be a valuable resource for psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, and marriage and family therapists in practice and in training.

Geoff Goodman is Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in the Emory University School of Medicine and Associate Professor of Psychology and Spiritual Care in the Emory University Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. He holds board certifications in clinical psychology and psychoanalysis from the American Board of Professional Psychology.

Acknowledgments Note on the Text Chapter 1. Introduction Part I. Using Autobiographies to Illustrate Attachment to God: Three Attachment Relationship Patterns Chapter 2. Coretta Scott King: Secure Attachment to the Living God Chapter 3. Anne Frank: Anxious-Resistant Attachment-Higher Power as Compensation Chapter 4. Bill W.: Anxious-Avoidant Attachment-Higher Power as Compensation Chapter 5. Sigmund Freud: Anxious-Avoidant Attachment-in Denial About the Possibility of a Higher Power Part II. A Clinical Application of Attachment-Informed Psychotherapy Chapter 6. A Yogi in Attachment-Informed Psychotherapy: A Spiritually Informed Case Conceptualization Chapter 7. What I Have Personally Learned from Writing this Book Author Index Subject Index