New Book: Attachment, Religion, and Spirituality

What's new compared to earlier work?

– I have been writing about attachment and religion for decades but this book has a few features that set it apart. For example, it includes a section on transformation and psychospiritual intervention: how religious/spiritual attachment can actually change, which connects to my ongoing work on psychedelics and attachment. For another, the book makes sustained use of biographical case studies of historical figures — Rumi, Frida Kahlo, and others — to illustrate theoretical principles, giving it a narrative quality that pure academic writing rarely achieves.

Who is the intended audience?

– Anyone curious about why relationships — with other people and with the divine — are so central to human life. The book is written to be accessible to students and general readers without prior background, while remaining theoretically rigorous enough for researchers and clinicians working in the psychology of religion, attachment theory, and spiritual care. In short: anyone who has wondered why Bowlby and Rumi are, at bottom, saying much the same thing.

About the Elements series

– Cambridge Elements is a relatively new and genuinely interesting format — more substantial than a journal article, but shorter and more readable than a traditional academic book. You may think of it as a serious long-read of 80–120 pages, peer-reviewed and published by one of the world's most respected academic presses. It is a format well suited to presenting a field of research in a way that people might actually finish.

Reference

Davis, E. W. B., & Granqvist, P. (2026). Attachment, Religion, and Spirituality. Cambridge University Press. DOI: 10.1017/9781009501019

Read more about Pehr Granqvist