Psychology: help yourself to a secure life

Interpreting the science of attachment, US psychiatrist/neuroscientist Levine had a surprise top-seller with his 2010 book-debut, Attached. But kept getting the same question, how do I become more secure? Finally, Secure (Cornerstone through Penguin, 264pp, RRP $37) shoots for answers, whilst also re-emphasising the science.

With non-fiction, sometimes I cheat, read the last page first. Bad idea, this time. "Build a rich social life with CARRP people," it urges, "and fill your world with CARRP SIMIs".

The text clears up the acronym-fog. This is one of your better examples of science-communication, sprinkled (almost to a fault) with reader-exercises and therapy-cases.

Immersed in Freud in his student years, Levine got lucky. Encountering creative scientists and mentors, fascinated by new crossovers between psychology and neuroscience.

It became known, that the brain forms memories at molecular level. Epigenetic tags can change the expression of DNA - including the brain-cells that do memory. Meanwhile, psychologists Hazan & Shaver issued their "groundbreaking" 1987 study, extrapolating infant attachment-styles – secure, anxious, avoidant – onto adult romance.

With much wider attachment-research now available, Levine's ready to recommend secure priming therapy, to improve your key relationships. It's still a merger of clinical psych, attachment science, plus basic neuroscience. Offering practical therapies and tools "designed to align our thoughts and beliefs with how the brain actually works".

Part one, The Secure Brain, explicates those CARRPs and SIMIs. Referencing numerous studies, Levine has it that evolution has programmed human brains to "experience exclusion" surprisingly personally and painfully. (Oddly, the references aren't listed in the book, only at the author's website.)

Imagine ancestral humans, as a hunted species. Exclusion from the group was no laughing matter – little old you could get picked off. That neurocircuitry, as it were, lingers on.

Horror movies can exploit the primal fear experienced by the isolated individual. No longer prime prey for savage beasts - more at risk from their own murderous species.

As Levine's quick to add, multiplex movies can also play on the brain's liking for heroic teams, going all-out to rescue others. What kept our ancestors alive on the savanna wasn't worldly wealth, but the people they were close to.

The more connected modern humans are, the greater their "cognitive function and brain volume", their capacity to rebound from adversity and illness.

Hence, the person seeking a healthy body-and-mind is exhorted to create a hyperconnected life. By being CARRP - consistent, available, responsive, reliable, and predictable. SIMIs – seemingly insignificant small interactions – are said to be the sauce that lays down new neural pathways to make you more CARRP as a person.