The Attachment Effect

Exploring the Powerful Ways Our Earliest Bond Shapes Our Relationships and Lives

By: Peter Lovenheim

Narrated by: Graham Winton

A revealing look at attachment theory, uncovering how our early childhood experiences create a blueprint for all our relationships to come - not just romantic ones, but at work, in friendships, with our kids, and more.

Attachment theory is having a moment. Recently covered in the New York Times Magazine, New York magazine, and elsewhere, it's also the subject of popular relationship guides. Why is this 60-year-old theory, widely accepted in psychological circles, suddenly in vogue? Because people are discovering how powerfully it sheds light on who we love - and how.

Fascinated by the subject, award-winning journalist and author Peter Lovenheim went on a years-long journey to understand it from the inside out. Interviewing researchers, professors, counselors, and other experts, as well as individuals and couples whose attachment stories illuminate and embody the theory's key concepts. The result is this engaging, relatable, and revealing book, which is part science journalism, part memoir, part psychological guide - and a fascinating listen for anyone who wants to better understand the needs and dynamics that drive the relationships in their lives.

©2018 Peter Lovenheim (P)2018 Recorded Books

Insightful Reading

Great book to help you figure out how your early childhood years have affected your attachment style.

Great overview of how attachment affects the world

Overview of attachment from a layman's perspective including how attachment affects sports, politics and religion

Failed to Attach

I suffer from attachment incompatibility with my spouse, and this book was recommended to me by a psychiatrist. I was hoping that the contents of this book would help me better understand my own attachment style and find ways to be more accommodating to the  needs and wants of my spouse.


This book helped with approximately none of those issues, and in truth I believe this book has been a waste of my time, my money, and my brain cell count.


The Attachment Effect is stuffed nearly to bursting with personal stories and anecdotes which *barely* mesh with the theme of the book and the lessons the author tries to convey, many of which drag on and have minutiae that add nothing of value to the story or desired lesson, drone on and on long past the point where even the most ardent reader would find themselves looking at the fast forward button, or contain a lesson so mindlessly obvious that it could have been flat out stated from the get go and saved everyone a lot of time.


Examples of these gems include things like: Workplaces should have better child care offered to employees, people who are secure in their emotions and attachment style tend to be happier in the workplace than those who are insecure, fucked up kids become fucked up adults if nothing intervenes, and that we all need to connect with others.


To Mr. Lovenheim directly: I'm glad you were able to write a book, truly. I'm happy that you were able to have your stories published and adapted into an audio format. However, the book you have written is an autobiography if anything, and marking it as a self-help or assistance book is irresponsible. People who come across this title are looking for help with their own lives, not the wandering and aimless memoirs of yours.


tl;dr - The narration is fine. The content is garbage. Cannot/Would not recommend under anyone for any circumstance. Save your money/credits, and find a better book elsewhere.