Journal Article

Interpersonal processes in palliative care: an attachment perspective on the patient-clinician relationship

Tan, Adrienne, Zimmermann, Camilla, Rodin, Gary

2005

Overview

The progression of advanced disease often brings enormous adaptational challenges related to a loss of the capacity to be self-sufficient and to a heightened need for support from others. The increasing need to rely on others at the end of life may reactivate relational problems and may trigger threatening feelings of vulnerability and dependency. Clinicians may find it difficult to identify and respond appropriately to the specific relational needs of individuals receiving end-of-life care. Attachment theory is a developmentally-based approach to understanding the formation and maintenance of relationships relevant to felt security. Although attachment theory has been widely applied to parent-child relationships and to relationships of individuals with chronic medical conditions to their medical caregivers, it has not previously been applied to the understanding of clinician-patient relationships in the palliative care setting. This paper provides an overview of this theory and demonstrates its application and relevance to palliative care.

• Publisher: SAGE Publications,Sage Publications Ltd
• Subject: Attachment theory / Canada / Caregivers / Children / Chronic illnesses / Dependency / Disease / End of life decisions / Female / Health professional-Patient relationships / Hospice care / Humans / Interpersonal interaction / Life / Male / Medical conditions / Medical personnel / Middle Aged / Object Attachment / Palliative care / Palliative Care - psychology / Parent-child relations / Parents & parenting / Patients / Physician-Patient Relations / Quality of Life / Security / Self sufficiency / Terminal Care - psychology / Terminally Ill - psychology / Theory / Understanding / Vulnerability