Dysregulated Caregiving: A Case Study

Dysregulated Caregiving
Using the psychoanalytic concept of defense Bowlby (1980) expanded on this with his idea of segregated systems with the same goal of protecting the self from painful emotions and feelings through repression. Segregated systems were seen as strategies of defense when a child had experienced attachment trauma (Bowlby, 1980). George and Solomon (2008) describe disorganized as developing from both past experiences and as influenced by current experiences (as cited in George & Solomon, 2011). Solomon and George (1999) asserted that these segregated systems often collapse. Dysregulated Caregiving develops occurs when these segregated systems are “unleashed” and become broke. When this occurs, the mother becomes consumed by fear (Solomon & George, 2011).
The Caregiving Interview (George & Solomon, 1989) was designed to elicit feelings surrounding being a parent. When a mother’s description of
her caregiving identifies her as having become overwhelmed by anger or fear, feelings of inadequacy, and loss of control she is understood to be dysregulated (Solomon & George, 2011).
Additionally, mothers describe themselves as being helpless to providing care and protection for their child (Solomon & George, 2011). Interestingly, their vision of themselves as a caregiver is similar to how they see their child (Solomon & George, 2011). Dysregulated mothers describe their children as out of control, troublesome, and label them as devils and adversaries (Solomon & George, 2011). These interpretations create great distress for the mother, and she feels helpless and desperately makes unsuccessful efforts to gain control and manage her child’s behavior (Solomon & George, 2011). Constriction, defined as a strategy that blocks an integrated understanding of self and child makes the child invisible to the
mother (Solomon & George, 2011). She is only able to think of her child within the context of herself (Solomon & George, 2011). The result of “invisibilty” is that it can lead to feelings of helplessness (Solomon & George, 2011). George and Solomon (2008) stated that an understanding of the mutual goals of attachment and caregiving is critical for both systems to function (as cited in Solomon & George, 2011). Distress in either situation hinders the mother’s ability to understand her child’s needs, which unsteadies both systems and results in the abdication of the caregiving system (George & Solomon, 2008). When mothers with BPD become psychologically unavailable to meet their infant’s cues, this can lead to an abdication of the caregiving system (George and Solomon, 2008).