Abstract
Within an ecosystemic framework integrating a cultural-family approach and Bowlby's attachment theory, this paper describes a mother-infant therapeutic program focusing on a high-risk population of infants from dysfunctional extended matrifocal families in the French Caribbean island of Martinique. Some of the factors involved in the disturbed mother-child attachment relationships were identified, and a multisystemic approach for remodeling both internal family processes and interactions between the family and the larger social system were described. The authors stress the importance of using a combination of specialized and non-specialized services which draw upon, and remain embedded in, the family's ecological context and argue for a conceptualization of extended matrifocal family organizations as being resourceful and resilient systems.
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Cook-Darzens, S., Brunod, R. An Ecosystemic Approach to Improving Mother-Infant Attachment in a Caribbean Matrifocal Society. Contemporary Family Therapy 21, 433–452 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021619003748
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021619003748