Hallucination (2019)

Attachment disorder is a psychological term for conditions that causes people difficulties forming meaningful relationships with other people, especially with their romantic partners. It is started with physical or mental neglecting and mistreating from the parents in early childhood. Also known as insecure attachment, its two common subtypes are anxious attachment and avoidant attachment. Symptoms of anxious attachment include low self-esteem, a strong need of feeling wanted and loved; symptoms of avoidant attachment include lacking pain empathy and avoiding experiencing feelings and emotions, etc. Studies have shown that those with attachment disorders reported more mental and physical illness than securely attached individuals, such as depression and heart disease.

This photo series is based on my personal experience of attachment disorder. It illustrates the inner states of insecurely attached individuals and how they perceive themselves and their relations to the outside world. As an insecurely attached adult, I had been trying to heal it by seeing a therapist and reading books for the past three years. To my surprise, I discovered that it’s still a less known illness to the public, yet more than half of the young adults (university students) in Taiwan reported to be insecurely attached. I wish to introduce attachment disorder to the audience and express my support to those who are coping with the same mental illness with this personal visual narrative.