Attachment theory applied to adult relationships. Three patterns: secure, anxious, avoidant, each with a fairly predictable set of behaviours under stress.
The most useful chapter is on the anxious and avoidant pairing, where one person’s need for reassurance triggers the other’s need for distance, and the whole thing runs as a loop neither party chose.
It is a pop psychology book and it flattens the research, which is worth knowing going in. What it does well is give people vocabulary for a pattern they already recognise but could not name.
Read July 2024.