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You're listening to the partially examined life episode 172 Part 2 with Dr. Drew talking

about attachment and growth of the self and the theory of mind understanding that other

people have purposes and intentions and how that works developmentally and therapeutically.

I think what we want to talk about next is this section that begins on page 7 of Fonegees

paper transmission of attachment security because the real thesis here is that the quality

of an attachment to a primary caregiver will predict how well children do with various

theory of mind tasks.

Why wouldn't we should dial back and just talk about what attachment is even?

Yes, good point.

So on page 8, the bottom of the right column, he's really referring to it in other authors

as he does many times, but he says if secure attachment is conceived of as the acquisition

of procedures of goal-oriented rational action for the regulation of aversive states of

a rousal within relationships, well, let's just leave it there.

So that's one way to describe this.

It does sound weird because I think the way we think of attachment in a very vague way

is just sort of the closeness and lovingness of the relationship of the infant to the parent,

but in this more technical explanation of thinking of quality of attachment, it's about how

well the relationship with the caregiver helps the infant regulate its own distress, especially

distressed in the context of relationships with other human beings, not that Fonegees goes

...