ATTACHMENT AND METACOGNITIVE CAPACITIES

Attachment theory is a common ground for many different approaches in psychotherapy, e.g. psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioural psychotherapy. The link between the attachment style and the development, or inhibition, of the different dimensions of metacognitive capacities it is widely investigated. Under the label of “metacognitive capacities” we can list the awareness of self and others mental and emotional states, the availability of restricted/flexible emotion regulation srategies, the emotion dysregulation processes, the adequate/inadequate mental representation of interpersonal goals in social interaction . A general review on this issue from a clinical point of view will be presented and implication for the clinical practice will be discussed.