On Attachment Types

On Attachment Types

I’m looking at the Wikipedia article for the attachment styles that Max tweeted and holy shit, ACCURATE. Slightly cut-down versions (seriously, read the article it’s a good fic writing resource)

Dirk: Anxious-preoccupied

People with anxious-preoccupied attachment type tend to agree with the following statements: “I want to be completely emotionally intimate with others, but I often find that others are reluctant to get as close as I would like”, and “I am uncomfortable being without close relationships, but I sometimes worry that others don’t value me as much as I value them.” People with this style of attachment seek high levels of intimacy, approval, and responsiveness from their attachment figure. They sometimes value intimacy to such an extent that they become overly dependent on the attachment figure.

Farah: Dismissive-avoidant

People with a dismissive style of avoidant attachment tend to agree with these statements: “I am comfortable without close emotional relationships”, “It is important to me to feel independent and self-sufficient”, and “I prefer not to depend on others or have others depend on me.” People with this attachment style desire a high level of independence. The desire for independence often appears as an attempt to avoid attachment altogether. They view themselves as self-sufficient and invulnerable to feelings associated with being closely attached to others. They often deny needing close relationships. 

Todd: Fearful-avoidant

People with this attachment style have mixed feelings about close relationships. On one hand, they desire to have emotionally close relationships. On the other hand, they tend to feel uncomfortable with emotional closeness. These mixed feelings are combined with sometimes unconscious, negative views about themselves and their attachments. They commonly view themselves as unworthy of responsiveness from their attachments, and they don’t trust the intentions of their attachments. Similar to the dismissive–avoidant attachment style, people with a fearful–avoidant attachment style seek less intimacy from attachments and frequently suppress and deny their feelings. Because of this, they are much less comfortable expressing affection.

So not only are these ACCURATE AS FUCK and incredibly useful character resources, but I’m sure on more thorough reading will suggest theories for the directions the characters could be taken in this season. One thing that DID worry me was the article on fearful-avoidant highlights its frequency in people with childhood trauma (losses or abuse), which makes me worry just a t e e n y t i n y b i t w o r r i e d about what we might have in store in terms of Todd backstory…