The unconscious operation of the attachment system via internal working models probably plays an important part in the choice of marital partner and relationship patterns in marriage. Holmes (1993) has described a pattern of 'phobic-counterphobic' marriage in which an ambivalently attached person will be attracted to an avoidant 'counter-phobic' spouse in a system of mutual defence against separation anxiety.
Jeremy Holmes, John Bowlby and Attachment Theory
ambivalent, attachment-theory, avoidant, marriage, phobic-counterphobic, psychology, relatonships, separation-anxiety