The way individuals think about their own identity and the way they respond to others is a person's self-concept. Various factors in an individual's life can have a negative or positive effect on his or her self-concept. By focusing on the negative self-concept, we can see recurring variables in their social environment that can trigger depressive symptoms. Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis begins when Gregor awakens from his disturbed dung beetle dream. Gregor, the main character, and Kafka himself, experienced insecure behavior, alienation, and depression in their relationships. For Gregor these symptoms had an enormous effect on his self-concept: they led him to a depressive and bleak end. Kafka's misery in his real life was reflected in Gregor's transformation. The Metamorphosis exposes the outcome of the negative self-concept resulting from Gregor's feelings from his relationships, alienation, and loss of communication. This essay will be able to provide evidence describing the relationships in both Gregor's and Kafka's lives, how their relationships and forms of attachment trigger alienation, and how the loss of communication can create a humiliating self-concept as one dung beetle. People obtain many of their social characteristics and personal attributes from the relationships in their lives. These traits arise from how individuals have been treated and how they respond to attachment security that comes from relationships. According to the article Mary Ainsworth by Saul McLeod, this is the skeletal model of attachment theory. In Kafka and Gregor the type of attachment represented is insecure avoidant attachment. An avoidant-insecurely attached individual is “independent of the attachment figure both physically and emotionally,” regardless of whether or not it is the focus of the article…Advances in Psychiatric Treatment Journal of Continuing Professional Development 15.6 ( 2009): 459-461 . The Royal College of Psychiatrists. Network. November 10, 2013.Farley, R. Chris. “A Brief Overview of Adult Attachment Theory and Research.” University of Illinois at Urbane Chapagne, University of Illinois at Urbane Chapagne. 2010. Network. 10 November 2013.Kafka, Franz. “The Metamorphosis”. New York: Dover Publishing, 1996. Print.Lee, Eunju, and Susan Stone. “Co-occurring internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems: The mediating effect of negative self-concept.” Journal of Youth and Adolescence 41.6 (2012): 717-731. Academic research completed. Network. November 17, 2013.Loveday, Veronica. "Franz Kafka." Franz Kafka (2005): 1-2. Historical reference center. Network. November 15, 2013. McLeod, Saul. "Mary Ainsworth." Simply psychology. Simply Psychology, 2008 Web. 13 November 2013