Vital Friends: The People You Can't Afford to Live Without By Tom Rath Reviewed by Geoffrey W. Sutton Events like Covid-19, severe illnesses, and disasters remind us of the importance of friends. Weaving together stories, historical examples, published research, and survey data, Rath makes the case for the importance of close friends (i,e, Vital Friends) to life-satisfaction and productivity. The author organized 14 chapters into four parts. Four appendixes, research notes, suggested reading, and acknowledgments complete this easy-to-read paperback. In the six chapters that comprise part one, we learn Rath's point that our culture may have focused too heavily on personal growth to the exclusion of developing relationships with others. In addition to examples from daily life, Rath invokes the research of Gottman to show the importance of positive interactions to marital and individual well-being. The three chapters of pa
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