About the AuthorPatricia M. Crittendenreceived her Ph.D. as a psychologist in the Social Ecology and Development Program at the University of Virginia. Shereceived a career achievement award for 'Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Child and Family Development' from the European Family Therapy Association in Berlin in 2004 and currentlyworks cross-culturally as a developmental psychopathologist developing theory and a developmentally attuned, life-span set of procedures for assessing self-protective strategies. can you read epub on kindle fire Raising Parents: Attachment, Parenting and Child Safety
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. BrilliantBy F. LangePatricia Crittenden provides a coherent, intellectually rigorous, empirically based theory of attachment. A must read for anyone working with personality disordered parents and vulnerable children.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. ExcellentBy MitchPat Crittendon knows her stuff. She's a student of Mary Ainsworth. This is a great book. It definitely reminds me of taking a graduate course or a good CEU.7 of 7 people found the following review helpful. A robust and parsimonious model, with rich examplesBy Mark BaumannRaising Parents is ostensibly a book for professionals working with parents who experienced difficulties or trauma in their own childhood. It is about how exposure to danger and the failure of comfort from danger impacts the development of children's minds and how that impacts adulthood. Rooted in developmental attachment theory, Dr. Crittenden describes a complex yet relatively simple model that describes the problem from multiple levels and perspectives. Going beyond the simplistic and stigmatizing DSM, and beyond the traditional ABC+D attachment model, her model not only offers a very robust theory for understanding how to relate to and help parents, it also deeply humanizes maladaptive behaviors, making it easier to listen to, understand, and identify a parents deep relational needs.I am a divorce lawyer/mediator and Dr. Crittenden's Dynamic Maturational Model of Attachment and Adaptation helps me communicate with parenting professionals. Far more than that, her insights and additions to attachment theory brought home the significance of how I can use attachment theory on a daily basis in my practice. Ultimately, for me, it is about how to communicate with parents, help them solve their conflicts more efficiently, and help them raise children with optimally developed neural systems.Dr. Crittenden is rooted in Bowlby's theories and studied under Ainsworth. She uniquely defines attachment as three entwined components: (1) relationships focused on protection from danger and comfort after exposure to danger, (2) patterns of mental processing of information about danger, and (3) strategies (oriented around Ainsworth's ABC model) for self-protection (including from subjectively perceived relationship danger), reproduction, and protection of progeny."For example. The DMM discusses behaviors largely in terms of dispositional representations (intentions) of self-protective strategies. In trying to understand a parent's behavior choices, such as when ineffectively disciplining, it is helpful to know what their intentions were. However, professionals can't typically expect true information if they ask questions about intent and behavior directly. When the "questioner is a threat to the parent, as child-protective services and the courts are, the immediate context of the question changes the context of representation substantially. Under such circumstances, the parent shifts from trying to solve a problem with the child to trying to solve a problem with the professional." Because of this, it is critical to look behind the behavior and intention. Emanating from the ABC model of attachment driven self-protective (relationship) strategies, the DMM describes a model that allows the professional to develop person-specific hypothesis from which to understand what is driving the intention and behavior, and then work to more effectively help the parent.The DMM is an elegant and robust model. It incorporates a multi-level framework to understand human behavior that ranges from genes to neuronal structure to development/relationship/environment to systems to context. Self-protective strategies, or as I might say behavior-in-conflict, is driven by only two basic patterns, or biases, of information processing (which also combine into a third pattern). Depending on the needs of the professional, these two basic patterns can be understood in finer and finer distinctions. These patterns are less narrow and stigmatizing than a personality disorder diagnosis, and also provide more insight into how to relate to the parent, how to view and where to bolster their dysfunction in information processing.Like any relational professional, understanding human behavior is key to truly helping. The DMM offers a fantastic model. I am trained in interpersonal neurobiology (Dan Siegel, Alan Schore, Ian McGilchrist, Stephen Porges, Jaak Panksepp, etc...), and I find the DMM highly consistent with this approach. Raising Parents offers deep explanations of the DMM with detailed examples of how it can be applied. It also offers a wonderful overview of other psychological theories and how they are incorporated into the DMM. This book, along with all of Crittenden's other works, is excellent.Mark Baumann, J.D.Seattle/Port Angeles, WA