Relasjoner og språk. Psykodynamisk fortolkning av språkets rolle i relasjonsdannelse som bidrag til å forstå grunnlaget for Adult Attachment Interview (AAI)

This paper discusses the role of language in the processes that initiate and develop mental representations of relationships. The study starts with a critical comparison of two existing theories selected from the field of relational psychoanalysis, aiming to discuss and assess the interaction between developing language and relational experience. The findings from this hermeneutic analysis are then applied in an attempt to explain why verbal behavior can be used to assess the mental representations of relationships as they are expressed in the Adult Attachment Interview. The two theories chosen from the field of relational psychoanalysis are the works of Stephen Mitchell and Daniel Stern, respectively. The contributions from each of them turned out to be compatible with attachment theory and thereby summed up to some tentative voicing of the silent domain of language development in attachment theory.