The Self And Personality Structure

* 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.

Table of Contents:
Series editor's preface
Preface
The self and personality in context
Psychoanalytic perspectives on the self
'classical' models
Psychoanalytic perspectives on the self
'developmental' models
Psychoanalytical perspectives on the self
late 20th century theory and technique
The social and interpersonal self in Adlerian and neo-Freudian theory
Jungian and post-Jungian perspectives on the psychodynamic self
Cognitive perspectives on the self
Humanistic, existential and transpersonal perspectives on the self
References
Index.


About the Author :
Paul Brinich is Clinical Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Associate Consulting Professor of Medical Psychology at Duke University Medical Center. He trained in psychoanalysis at the Hampstead Child-Therapy Course and Clinic, London (now the Anna Freud Centre) and the University of North Carolina - Duke University Psychoanalytic Education Program. He is also President of the Association for Child Psychoanalysis.

Christopher Shelley is former coordinator of the Institute for Individual Psychology (Adlerian Society-UK) in London. He remains co-editor of the British Adlerian Yearbook and is editor of Contemporary Perspectives on Psychotherapy and Homosexualities (Free Association Books). He currently has a private practice in Vancouver, Canada and is a researcher at the University of British Columbia.