Current Courses

Fall 2026 Course

Attachment Theory (PT 3)

Class meetings by Zoom

Course Description:  This course focuses on the birth, elaboration, and effects of Attachment Theory and its roots in psychoanalysis.  A basic paradox surrounding attachment theory is that it has been highly controversial within the professional psychoanalytic community from its beginning. The course will begin with the development of the theory under the advocacy of Bowlby, Ainsworth and others. Then we will take a look at the experimentation which has given the theory its vitality. We will take a brief look at the effects of the theory on institutions peripherally related to mental health, such as courts, schools, hospitals and child protection enforcement agencies. We will look as well at those aspects of the theory which have been discarded over time. This course will relate Attachment Theory to clinical diagnosis and treatment.

Learning Objectives:

1. Describe how attachment is related to drive theory and object relations theory.
2. Define “internal working model,’”and its place in Bowlby’s initial ideas on Attachment Theory.
3. Explain the significance of Harlow’s experiments with Rhesus monkeys, and what the results meant to the theory that child-mother bonding is based in nursing.
4. Describe the hallmarks of secure attachment in children.
5. Describe the types of insecure attachment.
6. Describe the hallmarks of reactive attachment disorder.
7. Discuss how common procedures of child protection agencies, inpatient hospitals, court-determined custody, and public education have changed as a result of Attachment Theory.
8. Demonstrate how attachment in adulthood may be related to attachment styles in childhood.
9. Describe how the elements of mentalization are related to attachment.
10. Describe how attachment styles may manifest in the clinical setting, and how the technique of Modern Psychoanalysis can make use of attachment styles as aids to diagnosis.
11. Describe how Attachment Theory can be usefully incorporated into clinical work with individuals and couples in treatment.

Dates and Times: Wednesdays from 9:00 am to 10:30 am Mountain Time, September 23 through December 16, 2026 (no class the week of Thanksgiving)

Instructor: Lynn Irwin, PsyaD

Text or telephone: 802-449-7611 (Text for a same-day reply.)

lynnirwin017@gmail.com

Tuition: $500

Continuing education: 18 NBCC credit hours

The Colorado Center for Modern Psychoanalytic Studies (CCMPS) has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7889. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. CCMPS is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.

To register go to https://ccmps.net/course-registration