by Andrea Scalabrini, Clara Mucci

Key words: attachment trauma, dissociation, embodied witnessing, early relational trauma, nested hierarchical model of self

Farina and Schimmenti’s model of attachment trauma offers a robust, transdiagnostic framework linking early relational trauma to complex psychopathological phenomena. This commentary expands upon their clinical conceptualization through a dialogue with neuropsychodynamic model of the self, as proposed by Scalabrini, and Mucci’s psychoanalytic theory of trauma, affect regulation and intergenerational transmission. Integrating different perspective from developmental psychopathology, affective neuroscience, and relational psychoanalysis, we further consider the therapeutic implications of restoring self-integration vs. traumatic disintegration, affective relationality vs. detachment reactions and mentalization vs. dysregulation of arousal and impulses across brain, body, mind and intergenerational systems.