Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • Platonic

  • How Understanding Your Attachment Style Can Help You Make and Keep Friends
  • By: Marisa G. Franco PhD
  • Narrated by: Marisa G. Franco PhD
  • Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars (21 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Platonic cover art

Platonic

By: Marisa G. Franco PhD
Narrated by: Marisa G. Franco PhD
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £11.99

Buy Now for £11.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Homecoming cover art
Friends cover art
Frientimacy cover art
The Wisdom of Your Body cover art
How to Be an Adult in Relationships cover art
I Thought It Was Just Me (but it isn’t) cover art
Deep Kindness cover art
How to Be Yourself cover art
The Road Back to You cover art
Love Yourself Deeply & How To Make Friends Easily cover art
Changes That Heal cover art
Improve Your People Skills: Build and Manage Relationships, Communicate Effectively, Understand Others, and Become the Ultimate People Person cover art

Summary

The instant New York Times Bestseller

In Platonic, psychologist and friendship expert Dr Marisa G. Franco unpacks why undervaluing friendship in our culture has led to an epidemic of isolation, and what we can do about it.

When was the last time you put yourself out there to make a new friend?
How do we keep friends in an era of distraction, burnout, and chaos, especially in a society that often prizes romantic love at the expense of other relationships?

This book offers a clear and actionable blueprint for forging strong and lasting connections with others – and becoming our happiest selves in the process.

Using the groundbreaking framework behind attachment theory, this book teaches us to identify and understand our individual style – secure, anxious or avoidant – and recognize that how we behave in relationships is the key to unlocking what we’re doing right (and what we could do better) in our friendships.

Weaving together cutting-edge research in psychology with interviews, personal stories and practical advice, this book gives us the tools we need to be better friends, and better humans.

©2022 Marisa G. Franco, PhD (P)2022 Macmillan Publishers International Limited

Critic reviews

"Platonic is a fantastic guide not just for making and keeping friends—it’s also a manifesto for how to more effectively invest in the stuff that really matters in life." (Dr Laurie Santos, Professor of Psychology at Yale University and host of The Happiness Lab podcast)

"A timely, unique guide to approaching friendship, often the profoundest source of connection in your life, with the love (and self-reflection) it deserves.'" (Francesca Specter, author of Alonement)

What listeners say about Platonic

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    7
  • 4 Stars
    6
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    3
Performance
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    8
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    4
Story
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    7
  • 4 Stars
    6
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    4

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Not for me

If you are lonely and want, no desperately need, to make friends the first chapter is a hard listen. To start with this book tells you what you probably already know; friends are good for you. It was so hard being told all the research that says how bad for your health loneliness is... preaching to the converted! It just made me more miserable.

After you wade through that chapter the author does start giving you tips but it seems reliant on you being in a large city that has lots of ways to meet people.

The other thing I struggled with was the narration. I found the voice quality muddy and unclear at time and the thick American accent was hard to decipher as a Brit.

Finally, there was too much research, facts, and figures. I found this too dry.

I struggled to stay engaged, at any time, for more than 5 minutes; often finding myself drifting off into other thoughts.

It's a real shame, I wanted to learn how to be better at making and keeping friends but it felt the information was buried in dry data and poor narration.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Most of us need this

There are absolutely brillant parts in this book - and I like the narrator very much. But the start is way to long, so you might want to skip the first hour. Its too long to get in to some actual tools here. But the book still needs to be read.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Yay! A book on friendship

Not easy to find a book on friendship. I love examples from researches and the clear structure.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Clear and helpful (review by Beth Calverley)

Pulls together strands of research into friendship along with the author’s personal and professional insights. This book has helped to inform a poetry and music show I’ve written and performed on the theme of friendship/loneliness as well as a creative workshop series I’m developing for people who want to form connections. Thank you!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Nothing really helpful

The basic message of this book is that friendship is important with the main advice being to take the initiative. Offers zero practical advice on how to overcome social anxieties, attachment issues etc. Taking the initiative is easier said than done. Didn’t find the book helpful.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Unbearably infantile

The book is difficult to listen to because it sounds like a teenager's diary with borderline cringy stories. And for some reason it's targeted at adults. It lacks nuance and expertise.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!