Trailblazers of dissociation and psychotherapy - Giovanni Liotti: Disorganized Attachment and Motivational Systems

A three-session webinar series by Prof Andrew Moskowitz

While Philip Bromberg and Giovanni Liotti both made ground-breaking contributions to our understandings of dissociation and psychotherapy, they took very different routes. Bromberg was first and foremost a clinician, albeit one with unbridled passions for literature and psychoanalytic history. In contrast, The Italian psychiatrist Liotti was as much theorist as he was therapist, with a strong interest in childhood experiences and developmental pathways to psychopathology. Trained as a cognitive-behavioral therapist and renowned in his native Italy for his psychotherapy training and teaching, Liotti impressed John Bowlby – who was astonished that a cognitive-behaviorally-oriented thinker could understand attachment theory as well as he did. Liotti was one of the first to recognize the essential similarity between infant disorganized attachment and adulthood dissociation and dissociative disorders, and speculated on the pathways that led from one to the other, as well as to borderline personality disorder and psychotic disorders. He believed that attachment was essential to understanding traumatic reactions, which activated the attachment system along with its corresponding implicit memories and internal working models of relationships. In his therapeutic work, Liotti emphasized the activation of the ‘cooperative’ system in psychotherapy, which kept the attachment system at bay, along with a careful and measured activation of the attachment system when indicated. His nuanced understanding of evolutionary-based motivational systems provided a cutting-edge vision of not only the ebb-and-flow of psychotherapy, but also the triggering of abusive behavior.

Series Learning objectives:

At the end of the three-webinar series, participants will:

1)           Understand the personal and professional context out of which Liotti emerged, his close relationship with John Bowlby and appreciation of Pierre Janet and evolutionary psychology, and his unique role in forging connections between dissociation, attachment and cognitive-behavioral psychology.

2)           Understand the rationale between Liotti’s linking of disorganized attachment to dissociation, along with the essential connection between the attachment system and traumatic experiences.

3)           Appreciate Liotti’s formulation of developmental pathways from early disorganized attachment experiences through the controlling strategies of middle childhood and, from there, to dissociative disorders, borderline personality disorder, and schizophrenia.

4)           Understand Liotti’s conception of evolutionary-based motivational systems, of which attachment is only one, and their activation and therapeutic use in psychotherapy, as well as in the understanding of abusive and violent behavior. 

Individual session (90-minute) learning objectives

Saturday, 11th of May, 2024 (Session 1): Liotti in Context.

By the end of the session, participants will appreciate:

1)           The development of Liotti as a person and professional and his interest and passion in bridging formerly disparate perspectives (dissociation and attachment, cognitive-behavior and evolutionary psychology).

2)           The enormous impact Liotti has had on the trauma and dissociation field by linking disorganized attachment with dissociation – supported by many subsequent research studies – and traumatic reactions with the attachment system – still underappreciated by many.

Saturday, 8th June, 2024 (Session 2) Liotti’s developmentally-informed attachment perspective on the genesis of dissociation-related psychological disorders.

By the end of the session, participants will appreciate:

1)           Liotti’s theoretical understanding of disorganized attachment and of the experiential world of the infant, along with the child’s attempts in middle childhood to cope with and control the consequences of a disorganized attachment system.

2)           The foundation of various forms of psychopathology – particularly dissociative and psychotic disorders, and borderline personality disorders – in disorganized attachment experiences, along with their differing trajectories into adulthood.

Saturday, 6th July, 2024 (Session 3) Liotti’s evolutionary-based conception of motivational systems and their role in psychotherapy and aggressive behavior.

By the end of the session, participants will appreciate:

1)           Liotti’s overarching conception of the nature and meaning of the range of motivational systems in human behavior, of which the attachment system is only one (albeit, a very important one).

2)           Liotti’s transactional view of how switches between motivational systems can inform our understanding of aggressive behavior and be creatively utilized in psychotherapy. 

Venue: Online on Zoom. Includes access to video recording for 30 days, excluding clinical video observation content.

Dates: Saturday, 11th of May, 2024, 8th June, 2024 & 6th July, 2024 (Three Sessions)

Time: 1000hrs to 1130hrs (Sydney/Melbourne Time)

Cost: 199.99 For all the three sessions. 

CPD: 4.5 hours. 

About Prof Andrew Moskowitz: Andrew Moskowitz, Ph.D. is director of the Forensic Psychology graduate program at George Washington University in Alexandria, Virginia, former president of the European Society for Trauma and Dissociation and a core member of the WHO ICD-11 dissociative disorders diagnoses task force. He is a renowned expert in the trauma/dissociation field, who, for the past 20 years, has used this perspective to inform our understandings of psychosis and violent behavior. As a clinical and forensic psychologist, Dr. Moskowitz has performed therapy and conducted forensic evaluations in the United States, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, in both prison and forensic mental health settings. As an academic, he has taught undergraduate and graduate psychology and medical students in the United States, New Zealand, Scotland, Denmark and Germany, and was the lead editor of both editions of the influential book Psychosis, Trauma and Dissociation (Wiley, 2008, 2019).

About eiseEducation: eiseEducation delivers exceptional webinars, short courses, and professional development training to the mental health, social services & community services sector across Australia & New Zealand. Find out more at eiseeducation.com

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