The Attachment Effect
Full Reviews
“I’ve always thought that attachment principles play a crucial role not just in child rearing and romantic relationships, but in other aspects of our lives. Then along comes this book, which illustrates how attachment affects pretty much everything! Written beautifully and most important, accessibly, The Attachment Effect does a magnificent job of revealing how attachment manifests at the workplace, in friendships, religion, and even politics!”
—Amir Levine, M.D., author of Attached
“Every reader will find this book about attachment enlightening—and above all, moving. The author takes a personal approach and shows how learning about the new science of attachment helps him understand himself and his life—in fact, the lives of all of us. An easy, absorbing read!”
—Dr. Sue Johnson, author of Hold Me Tight: Seven Conversations for a Lifetime of Love
“This richly informative, deeply researched, touchingly personal, and always readable book about the meaning and uses of attachment theory explores the hows and whys of our complicated connections with each other. It offers valuable insights into what makes a relationship fail or succeed, and how a better understanding of our attachment style might help to rescue a floundering relationship.”
—Judith Viorst, author of Necessary Losses
“The Attachment Effect is an accurate, engaging, and beautifully written account of attachment theory and research, both as developed in the field of scientific psychology and as applied to specific individuals, including the author himself, his family, and a fascinating collection of lovers, parents, workers, athletes, churchgoers, and politicians. The author’s self-analyses are fascinating and emotionally moving in their own right while also providing a valuable model for readers who want to think deeply about their own attachment experiences and proclivities. It is rare for a book to be this much fun while also being so instructive and thought provoking. I loved reading it!”
—Phillip R. Shaver, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Psychology, University of California Davis
“With remarkable frankness and rare insight into his own experiences and those of many others he interviewed, Peter Lovenheim shows in The Attachment Effect how we can improve all our relationships—from work to romance, parenting to politics, youth to aging—even if events beyond our control during infancy started us off on the wrong track. An incisive work that can guide everyone to have a better relationship with every individual who matters in their lives.”
—Nicholas Gage, author of Eleni and A Place for Us
“Cogent, informative, well written… artfully lays out how styles of attachment shape behavior in many different settings and people (including the author himself).”
—Joan Jacobs Brumberg, professor emerita of Women’s Studies and Human Development at Cornell
“This remarkable book can be read in several ways. Each makes us more informed and better off. As an overview of a major body of research and social psychological theory; as a source of improved understanding of ourselves—and to better attach to others.”
—Amitai Etzioni, author of The New Golden Rule: Community and Morality in a Democratic Society
