The Self and Personality Structure

by Paul Brinich, Christopher Shelley

Overview

What is the self and its relationship to personality theories? How do the central schools of psychotherapy conceptualize the self?

The self is a notoriously difficult and at times obscure concept that underpins and guides much psychotherapy theory and practice. The corollary concept of personality is fundamentally linked to the concept of the self and has provided theorists and researchers in psychology with a more coherent set of principles with which to explicate the personal and attributional aspects of the self.

The authors come from two quite separate schools of depth psychology (psychoanalytic and Adlerian) and provide an overview of the self and how it is conceptualized across the psychotherapies within various theories of personality. In addition to outlining some of the philosophical and historical issues surrounding the notion of selfhood, the authors examine classical and developmental models of psychoanalytic thought that implicitly point to the idea of self. The authors also outline Kohut's psychoanalytic self psychology in addition to Adlerian and other post Freudian, Jungian and post-Jungian, cognitive, humanistic, and existential contributions to the self and personality structure.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780335205639
Publisher:	McGraw-Hill Companies, The
Publication date:	07/01/2002
Series:	Core Concepts in Therapy Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	130
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 5.50(h) x 0.28(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

Table of Contents

	Series editor's preface	vii
	Preface	x
1	The self and personality in context	1
	The self in western history	2
	Nineteenth-century perspectives on the self	5
	William James's legacy: between Romanticism and late modernity	9
	James and global self-esteem	11
	The critical turn	14
	Lacan and the other	17
	Personality and character	19
	Summary	22
2	Psychoanalytic perspectives on the self: 'classical' models	24
	The 'driven' self of Freud's metapsychology	24
	The ego and its functions: a step towards a self	26
	Kleinian object relations and the self	28
	Reich, Charakterpanzerung and the self	29
	The self in narcissistic and borderline pathology	30
	Summary	31
3	Psychoanalytic perspectives on the self: 'developmental' models	33
	Early organizers of experience (Spitz)	33
	Pathological and normal development of the self in childhood (Mahler)	34
	Ethological perspectives on the development of the self in childhood (Bowlby, Ainsworth)	36
	Mother-infant interaction and the organization of the self (Emde, Stern)	38
	The self across the lifespan (Erikson, Vaillant)	41
4	Psychoanalytic perspectives on the self: late twentieth-century theory and technique	45
	Kohut and 'self psychology'	45
	Kernberg and 'object relations'	49
5	The social and interpersonal self in Adlerian and neo-Freudian theory	53
	Alfred Adler and the self	54
	Adler and (dis)unity of the self	58
	Social approaches to the psychodynamic self	61
	Karen Horney	61
	Eric Fromm	62
	Harry Stack Sullivan	64
	Summary	66
6	Jungian and post-Jungian perspectives on the psychodynamic self	67
	Basic structure of the psyche	68
	Archetypal theory	70
	The Self as archetype	75
	Summary	77
7	Cognitive perspectives on the self	79
	The cognitive perspective: general considerations	80
	Cognitive research on the self	83
	Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT)	85
	Summary	86
8	Humanistic, existential and transpersonal perspectives on the self	88
	Transpersonal psychology and the self	89
	Humanistic psychology	91
	Gestalt therapy and the self	93
	Existential psychology and self	95
	Summary and afterword	98
	Notes	99
	References	101
	Index	109

Editorial Reviews

Coming from two separate schools of depth psychology (psychoanalytic and Adlerian), the authors provide an overview of the self and how it is conceptualized across the psychotherapies within various theories of personality. In addition to examining some of the philosophical and historical issues surrounding the notion of selfhood, they examine classical and developmental models of psychoanalytic thought that point to the idea of self, touching on the work of Kohut, Adler, and other post-Freudian, Jungian, and post-Jungian thinkers. Brinich teaches psychology and psychiatry at the University of North Carolina. Shelley is co-editor of the British Adlerian Yearbook. The book is distributed by Taylor & Francis. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR