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Attachment theory is gaining prominence in the health care field.

Increasing evidence links attachment style to health and illness.

To boost your daily well-being, sustain a secure attachment style.

Do you feel in control of your physical health? It seems increasingly hard to know what's really effective, as popular newsfeeds tout the alleged benefits of obscure grains, mega-vitamin supplements, and exotic fitness methods like bathing or swimming in icy water. However, you're less likely to hear that your overall well-being is affected by your capacity to enjoy emotionally close relationships, such as those involving friendship, family ties, and romantic love: namely, your attachment style.

Of course, the notion that we're uplifted by gratifying social bonds isn't new. As Maslow's biographer, I discovered that he was influenced as early as the 1950s by such founders of psychosomatic medicine as psychiatrist Felix Deutsch. Initially serving as Sigmund Freud's personal physician in 1920s Vienna, Deutsch fled Nazi Germany and specialized in mind-body research upon coming to the United States. He and Maslow became friendly colleagues in the Boston area, though never actively collaborating. Partly through Deutsch's clinical studies with patients, Maslow became sure that medical science would eventually show that our social relationships in daily life greatly impact our overall well-being.

In The Farther Reaches of Human Nature, Maslow drew upon his influential hierarchy of inborn needs to assert: "The indications are [this is mostly extrapolation rather than hard data] that...increasing psychological health...can probably also increase [one's] longevity and reduce........

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