Yajima Dupuis, Lissa Claudia
Institutional Work in the Light of Attachment Theory: Should an Institution Be an Attachment Figure for Caregivers?
- 2015.
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Institutions are social structures stabilized in time and there for a purpose. The hospital institution relieves the suffering of patients. Nevertheless, caregivers become vulnerable to psychic suffering both because of prolonged exposure to the suffering of the patient and also to work-related stress. They can be in need of support and comfort. In the light of attachment theory and based on a clinical situation, the hospital institution is considered here as an attachment figure for caregivers. Within this perspective, institutional failures could be apprehended as a lack of satisfaction of a fundamental need for protection of caregivers. It would seem there is an ethic of taking care of caregivers, bringing together the values of the consideration for and the commitment to the human person. The common attention directed towards the patient would find itself henceforth reinforced.