The Confluence of Attachment, Hope, and Beauty in a Philosophy of Communion

Abstract

Secure attachment in adult romantic relationships is a clinical outcome with well-established, positive effects on mental health. A review of the psychological literature suggests that encountering beauty may be one under-utilized means of fostering secure attachment in couples. There is existing empirical support that engagement with beauty has several prosocial effects, and it has been theorized that the capacity for beauty first develops in the mother-infant attachment bond. At the same time, existing empirical evidence and psychological theory also connect the disposition of hope to both beauty and attachment. This suggests that attending to all three constructs may expand the available pathways to fostering secure attachment, but no existing theory accounts for all three. Drawing from Catholic Christian anthropology and personalist philosophy, attachment, hope, and beauty are synthesized in a philosophical account of communion. Each involves three aspects of communion: (1) expressing desire to receive from the other, (2) giving oneself to the other, and (3) unifying encounter with the other. This new theory also accounts for connections between these constructs at the level of individual differences. The four adult attachment styles (secure, dismissive-avoidant, anxious-preoccupied, and fearful-dismissive) each correspond with a disposition related to hope (hope, acedia, presumption, and despair) and a disposition towards beauty (contemplation, insensitivity, lust, and flight-through-desecration). Finally, the present work provides some preliminary suggestions for applying the new theory both in terms of clinical interventions in couples therapy and preventative/enrichment practices that couples can develop in their daily lives.