The Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) is both a mainstay of attachment research and a powerful clinical tool. This unique book provides a thorough introduction to the AAI and its use as an adjunct to a range of therapeutic approaches, including cognitive-behavioral therapy, psychoanalytic psychotherapy, parent-infant psychotherapy, home visiting programs, and supportive work in the context of foster care and adoption. Leading authorities provide detailed descriptions of clinical procedures and techniques, illustrated with vivid case material. Grounded in research, the volume highlights how using the AAI can enhance assessment and diagnosis, strengthen the therapeutic alliance, and facilitate goal setting, treatment planning, and progress monitoring.

The Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) is both a mainstay of attachment research and a powerful clinical tool. This unique book provides a thorough introduction to the AAI and its use as an adjunct to a range of therapeutic approaches, including cognitive-behavioral therapy, psychoanalytic psychotherapy, parent-infant psychotherapy, home visiting programs, and supportive work in the context of foster care and adoption. Leading authorities provide detailed descriptions of clinical procedures and techniques, illustrated with vivid case material. Grounded in research, the volume highlights how using the AAI can enhance assessment and diagnosis, strengthen the therapeutic alliance, and facilitate goal setting, treatment planning, and progress monitoring.

Foreword, June SroufeI. The AAI in Clinical Context1. Ten Clinical Uses of the Adult Attachment Interview, Howard Steele and Miriam Steele2. Studying Differences in Language Usage in Recounting Attachment History: An Introduction to the Adult Attachment Interview, Mary Main, Erik Hesse, and Ruth Goldwyn3. The Distribution of Adult Attachment Representations in Clinical Groups: A Meta-Analytic Search for Patterns of Attachment in 105 AAI Studies, Marinus H. van IJzendoorn and Marian J. Bakermans-KranenburgII. Intervention Research with Mothers, Infants, and Toddlers4. The AAI Anticipates the Outcome of a Relation-Based Early Intervention, Christoph M. Heinicke and Mónica Susana Levine5. Adult Attachment, Parental Commitment to Early Intervention, and Developmental Outcomes in an African American Sample, Douglas M. Teti, Lauren A. Killeen, Margo Candelaria, Wendy Miller, Christine Reiner Hess, and Melissa O’Connell6. Attachment-Theory-Informed Intervention and Reflective Functioning in Depressed Mothers, Sheree L. Toth, Fred A. Rogosch, and Dante CicchettiIII. Parent–Infant Relationships, Adolescents, and Adults in Psychotherapy7. The AAI as a Clinical Tool, Amanda Jones 8. Integrating the AAI in the Clinical Process of Psychoanalytic Parent–Infant Psychotherapy in a Case of Relational Trauma, Tessa Baradon and Miriam Steele9. Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder in Adolescence: An AAI Perspective, Tord Ivarsson 10. The AAI in a Clinical Context: Some Experiences and Illustrations, Massimo Ammaniti, Nino Dazzi, and Sergio Muscetta11. The Reciprocal Impact of Attachment and Transference-Focused Psychotherapy with Borderline Patients, Diana Diamond, Frank E. Yeomans, John F. Clarkin, Kenneth N. Levy, and Otto F. KernbergIV. The AAI and Trauma 12. The AAI and Its Contribution to a Therapeutic Intervention Project for Violent, Traumatized, and Suicidal Cases, Sonia Gojman de Millán and Salvador Millán 13. Adult Attachment and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Women with Histories of Childhood Abuse, K. Chase Stovall-McClough, Marylene Cloitre, and Joel F. McClough14. AAIs in a High-Risk Sample: Stability and Relation to Functioning from Adolescence to 39 Years, Judith A. Crowell and Stuart T. Hauser15. Exploring the Mind Behind Unresolved Attachment: Lessons from and for Attachment-Based Interventions with Infants and Their Traumatized Mothers, Greg Moran, Heidi Neufeld Bailey, Karin Gleason, Carey Anne DeOliveira, and David R. Pederson16. Hostile–Helpless States of Mind in the AAI: A Proposed Additional AAI Category with Implications for Identifying Disorganized Infant Attachment in High-Risk Samples, Sharon Melnick, Brent Finger, Sydney Hans, Matthew Patrick, and Karlen Lyons-RuthV. The AAI, Foster Care, and Adoptive Placements17. Forecasting Outcomes in Previously Maltreated Children: The Use of the AAI in a Longitudinal Adoption Study, Miriam Steele, Jill Hodges, Jeanne Kanuik, Howard Steele, Saul Hillman, and Kay Asquith18. Helping Foster Parents Change: The Role of Parental State of Mind, Johanna Bick and Mary DozierAfterword, Deborah Jacobvitz