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Home > French > Extension Course > Prescribed issues > The power of attachment > The power of attachment: Introduction to the issue

Introduction to the issue: The power of attachment

Some background information on this issue.

Let’s define what attachment is.

• Attachment may be defined as affection or feelings of warmth, love and friendliness towards people, animals, possessions and ideas. In our daily lives we all feel attachment to people and things. We might consider some important and others as trivial. However to some elements we feel a strong attachment which will control how we think about these people or things, how we react to them and how far we are prepared to go to defend them or protect them.

Consider the following

• What are you attached to? Make a list of people or things you think you could not live without and which are closest to you: Family, friends, pets, mobile phone, internet, iPod, music, sport, places etc.
  
  
  • There is also self-attachment, reflect on the ways advertising and the media promote this form of attachment in young people and what are consequences.
    
    
  • Open this field a little further to examine what you are attached to: family, community, job, country, good health, justice, freedom of speech.
    
    
  • Try to divide your list into categories:
    • material attachments
    • physical attachments
    • emotional attachments
    • cultural attachments
    • language attachments
    • other
  • There is one more step in this progression: list your attachments as either positive/healthy or negative/unhealthy attachments, or attachments that either enhance or inhibit you as an individual.
    
    
  • You may wish to reflect on or discuss how attachment to drugs, alcohol, smoking, risky behaviour and gambling could influence a person’s life.
    
    
  • Consider the concept of your own self-image: what are some attachments people have?
    
    
  • Attachment to healthy eating and an exercise regime, or an unhealthy attachment to an obsessive body image/physical appearance?
    
    
Furthermore try to imagine the reverse of your original feelings about different issues. This will help you see both sides of the argument.
• Consider attachment to country, language, culture, values, beliefs, systems and processes. Complete the following activities to determine where you stand on these issues. Where would you place yourself on the continuum:
  
  +_________________________neutral__________________________ -
  positive                                                                                             negative

Activities

1. Imagine what losses ‘outsiders’, for example immigrants, asylum-seekers, refugees endure when they must move to another society/another country, e.g. family ties, stability, language, culture, familiarity with systems, expectations, values, beliefs. Create a mind map or a list of ideas in French.
   
   
2. Create a list or mind map of possible circumstances which could have led to loss of their attachments, e.g. discrimination, war, famine, political repression, death, etc.
   
   
3. Discuss loss of family, relatives, friends and list possible solutions to help people cope with loss of attachments, e.g. education, work, food, religious affiliations, social networks and support groups.
   
   
4. Consider how fanatics/zealots use attachment to faith, family tradition and ethnic groups to encourage people to commit certain actions.
   
   
5. Start a vocabulary list for this issue and keep adding to it as you come across new words, phrases and expressions.