Wiki today is featuring Attachment Theory. This made me think about my own earliest formative period as I was told by my Mother (Wanda Rose¹) that she went back to work a month after I was born which I presume would mean that my Father (LaVerne) was the initial attachment figure as he generally was a petty hustler in this period and would have been the at home parent during the day. They separated and got back together throughout their relationship as well as in this period but my only firm recollections are that I don't remember much before a time when my mother was living in a boarding house ("Miss Adams House") and by this time she had become the attachment figure, although of course she continued to work so I guess Miss Adams or whoever was the day caregiver. I was trying to think of something that would allow me to firmly date this period, then I remembered that I used to sing, in Miss Adams foyer in particular, to any and all audiences, a song popular at the time, "Dream Lover". So I looked it up on wiki and thus can infer that I was (just) 5 at Miss Adams House.
The thing I find striking is that while I have strong memories of the song and of performing it, I had only the foggiest concept of its authorship until googling it. I also think my performances slurred a number of popular songs and performers of the time, and I think "That'll be the Day" was also one. So the period of transience, before which I have little memory, would have been between 3 and 5 followed by a period of relative stability with both parents under one roof for about 4-5 of course troubled years.
My upbringing may sound disastrous and I suppose in a lot of ways it was but I just took the Attachment Style questionnaire and answering the questions truthfully I came out with a (2.33,2.73) which is:
Combining your anxiety and avoidance scores, you fall into the secure quadrant. Previous research on attachment styles indicates that secure people tend to have relatively enduring and satisfying relationships. They are comfortable expressing their emotions, and tend not to suffer from depression and other psychological disorders.
in the middle of that quadrant, in fact since the cartesian graph has origin at 4,4 for some reason. This is misleading and the survey didn't capture nor take into account the bigger picture. I am comfortable with my emotions but also suffer from "depression". Again if psychological disorder means not being well adjusted to the current society, have that one too.
The article on Attachment disorder indicates that attachment problems after age 3 have little impact. I don't remember anything before 3 but I don't think there were problems then, my parents roles as caregivers were unusual but they were the opposite of abusive (to me) and I really never had a lot of the problems I hear about in other families of insecurity or a lack of intimacy, so that would explain the mixed picture of secure attachment style and no actual attachments.
I guess the whole attachment styles thing is only useful as a factor, seldom if ever in isolation.
¹
Known as "Sandy"