Kleshas: Root Afflictions Underlying Attachment Disorders

Patanjali identifies five kleshas or afflictions: avidya (ignorance), asmita (ego/false identity), raga (attachment/craving), dvesha (aversion/rejection), and abhinivesha (fear of death/annihilation). These fundamental misperceptions drive all suffering. Applied to attachment, avidya creates ignorance about your true worth independent of others' validation. Asmita constructs a false identity built on others' approval or rejection. Raga manifests as anxious clinging and desperate attachment-seeking. Dvesha appears as avoidant rejection and contemptuous distancing. Abhinivesha emerges as existential terror of abandonment or engulfment. Insecure attachment develops when early relationships taught these kleshas as survival strategies. A child whose needs were inconsistently met learns raga (desperate craving for connection) and abhinivesha (terror of loss). One whose needs were rejected learns dvesha (protective rejection of others). Patanjali's path involves systematically recognizing these afflictions without judgment and gradually releasing their grip through practice. Attachment healing similarly requires identifying the core misconceptions underlying patterns—"I'm unworthy," "I need others to survive," "Connection means annihilation of self"—and consciously replacing them with truer understandings through repeated corrective experiences.