Attachment in Religion and Spirituality
A Wider View

Synthesizing diverse strands of theory and research, this compelling book explores the psychology of religion and spirituality through an innovative attachment lens. Pehr Granqvist examines the connections between early caregiving experiences, attachment patterns, and individual differences in religious cognition, experience, and behavior. The function of a deity as an attachment figure is analyzed, as are ways in which attachment facilitates the intergenerational transmission of religion. The book also shows how the attachment perspective can aid in understanding mystical experiences, connections between religion and mental health, and cultural differences between more and less religious societies. Granqvist's conversational writing style, concrete examples, and references to popular culture render complex concepts accessible.

Foreword, Phillip R. Shaver
Prologue: Setting the Stage
I. Normative Aspects of Attachment, Religion, and Spirituality
1. Normative Features of Attachment
2. God as a Noncorporeal Attachment Figure
3. Religious and Spiritual Development in Relation to Attachment Maturation
II. Individual Differences in Attachment, Religion, and Spirituality
4. Individual Differences in Attachment
5. The Correspondence Pathway
6. The Compensation Pathway
III. Expansions: A Wider View of Attachment and Religion/Spirituality
7. Religion as Attachment in Relation to Mental Health
8. Altered Spiritual States, Dissociation, and Attachment Disorganization
IV. Points of Convergence and Divergence
9. Attachment Theory and the Psychology and Psychoanalysis of Religion
10. Attachment and the Evolutionary Cognitive Neuroscience of Religion
V. Beyond Attachment, Religion, and Spirituality: The Psychology of Secularism
11. God versus the Welfare State
Epilogue
Playlist

Pehr Granqvist, PhD, is Professor of Developmental Psychology at Stockholm University, Sweden. He has studied the attachment–religion connection since the mid-1990s, originally as part of his doctoral studies at Uppsala University, Sweden. His research in this area--as well as in the psychology of religion and the field of attachment more generally--is widely cited and recognized internationally. Dr. Granqvist is a recipient of the Margaret Gorman Early Career Award from Division 36 (Psychology of Religion and Spirituality) of the American Psychological Association and the Godin Prize from the International Association for the Psychology of Religion, among others. In 2018, he was a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley.