Kazuko Y. Behrens

A Multifaceted View of the Concept of Amae: Reconsidering the Indigenous Japanese Concept of Relatedness.

The indigenous Japanese concept of amae has provoked interest from scholars across disciplines. Many have provided their own version of defining amae without much attempt to synthesize it into a demonstrative definition. Non-Japanese scholars have attempted to understand the concept through their own interpretations, which has often led to confusions and erroneous conclusions. The present paper analyzes the concept of amae, focusing on its everyday use with illustrative evidence to provide contextual meanings of varied amae phenomena. A multifaceted view to approach amae is introduced. The new approach proposes to consider amae in different contexts and in three developmental phases, with evidence to support that amae is, in fact, different in each category. Future amae research is discussed.

Disorganized attachment in infancy: a review of the phenomenon and its implications for clinicians and policy-makers.

ABSTRACT Disorganized/Disoriented (D) attachment has seen widespread interest from policy makers, practitioners, and clinicians in recent years. However, some of this interest seems to have been based on some false assumptions that (1) attachment measures can be used as definitive assessments of the individual in forensic/child protection settings and that disorganized attachment (2) reliably indicates child maltreatment, (3) is a strong predictor of pathology, and (4) represents a fixed or static “trait” of the child, impervious to development or help. This paper summarizes the evidence showing that these four assumptions are false and misleading. The paper reviews what is known about disorganized infant attachment and clarifies the implications of the classification for clinical and welfare practice with children. In particular, the difference between disorganized attachment and attachment disorder is examined, and a strong case is made for the value of attachment theory for supportive work with families and for the development and evaluation of evidence-based caregiving interventions.