'Who am I?' In a world where randomness and chance make life transient and unpredictable, religion, psychology and philosophy have all tried, in their different ways, to answer this question and to give meaning and coherence to the human person. How we should construct a meaningful 'me' - and to make sense of one's life - is the question at the heart of Mel Thompson's illuminating book.Although Thompson begins by exploring the workings of the brain, he shows that if we are to consider the nature of the self, it is not enough to argue about such things as how mind relates to matter, or whether neuroscience can fully explain consciousness. Such an approach fails to do justice to the self that we experience and the selves that we encounter around us. We need to engage with the more personal, existential questions: how do I make sense of my life? And am I responsible for the person I have become?Thompson investigates the gap between what we are and what others perceive us to be to ascertain whether we are genuinely knowable entities. He explores the central dilemma of how one can have a fixed idea of 'me' to shape and direct one's life when, in a world of constant change, events will rob us of that fixed idea at any moment. Perhaps we would be better to let go of the need for 'me', asks Thompson, but would a self-less life be possible, or desirable?Drawing on the writings of literature, philosophy, religion and science, as well as personal reflection and anecdote, Thompson has written an engaging and thought-provoking work that recaptures the notion of 'me' from the neuroscientists and situates it at the heart of finding a place in the world.

First published in 1990. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

It is widely recognized that a person's values will profoundly affect what that person attends to, thinks about, and remembers. Yet, despite this, psychologists have only begun to study and think about the deep connections between values and knowledge. This volume explores this important area in psychology by offering an overview of what is known about the developmental role of valuation in the acquisition of knowledge, and also by examining a range of new ideas for understanding the intricate connection between evaluation and thinking. More specifically, the text: provides a historical overview of philosophical and psychological theories relating the values and knowledge; reviews the importance of values for infants and their caretakers in the origins of both cognition and social relations; offers a provocative view of how the differences among families in their values may have profound affects on psychological development; explicates the development of a personal sphere within which one strives to shape one's own values; emphasizes the heterogeneity of valuation inherent in every culture and how conflicts of values are likely to be common and important to human development; presents eye-opening research on social-cognitive limitations of average people in respecting the points of view of others; and summarizes and critiques Piaget's theory of the role of values in development. For practitioners in the fields of developmental and social psychology, and education, this volume will introduce a number of important and current issues, from multiculturality and gender to the differential roles of temperament and upbringing in development. The emphasis is placed squarely on developing individuals and how they shape themselves in a world that is structured by values as well as by facts.

Professor Karina V. Korostelina presents insights into the "Trump effect" and explains how the support for Trump among the American general public is based on three complementary pillars. First, Trump champions a specific conception of American national identity that empowers his supporters. Second, Trump's leadership has, to an extent, been crafted from his ability to recognize where and with whom he can get the most return on his investment (e.g. his political comments) and address the perceived general malaise in the U.S. Trump also mirrors the emotions of a disenfranchised American public, and inspires the use of frustration based anger and insults to achieve desired aims. He addresses the public's intolerance of uncertainty and ambivalence by providing simpler solutions to complex national problems and by blurring the boundary betweent he leading political parties. Further, Trump employs existing political polarization and has established a new kind of morality. Third, Trump challenges the existing political balance of power within the U.S. and globally. The overarching goal of this book is to show how the popularity of Trump has revealed substantial problems in the social, political, and economic fabric of American life. Aimed at the general public and students in the U.S. and internationally, the book goes beyond many explanations of the "Trump Effect". Using a multidisciplinary theoretical lens, it provides a systemic multifaceted analysis based on multiple theories of social identity, emotions, cognitions, morality, and power to explain the broader social phenomena of the rise of individuals in society.

Originally published in 1988, in this personal review of the state of academic psychology, Paul Kline draws attention to the way in which his peers at the time studiously avoided such threatening matters as human feelings and emotions, unconscious 'complexes' - in short anything that could be called the human psyche. His erudite, amusing, and provocative text outlines the crucial influence of the development of scientific method before examining key experiments within cognitive psychology and cognitive science, psychometrics, social psychology, and animal behaviour. Is most of experimental psychology trivial, redundant, and irrelevant? The academic subject cannot continue to ignore its critics, he argued, and must solve its problems by means of radical solutions. Whether they support or refute Professor Kline's arguments, students and professionals alike will still enjoy this original book.

The past two decades have seen a tremendous increase in research and scholarship devoted to personal relationships. From rather scattered beginnings a recognizable and recognized field has emerged, whose strength and health is reflected in a wide array of indicators. The editors contend that while the vigor of the field is often shown in the diversity and innovation of its research, it is in the theoretical domain that they find evidence of a real coming of age. This volume provides grounds for arguing that the diversity of theorizing is particularly healthy at this point. The reader will notice that there is some diversity in terms of how much theory and research is contained in each chapter -- some are purely theoretical; others are complemented by original pieces of empirical research. The editors and contributors are from different countries -- another way in which the diversity of this book manifests itself. The variety of the frameworks presented are seen as a strength, as building on established strengths elsewhere to feed into relationship research and enhance its vitality. Each chapter makes its own contribution to thinking and research about personal relationships. As a group they add to an exciting collection that not only reflects a richness of conceptual backing, but also a wide range of usable theoretical structures.

This innovative study focuses on seven inherent personality traits humans share with primates; activity, fearfulness, impulsivity, sociability, altruism, aggressiveness, and dominance. The author discusses these traits from the dual perspective of our evolutionary history and our human uniqueness.

Ulman and Brothers utilize a unique clinical research population of rape and incest victims and Vietnam combat veterans to argue that trauma results from real occurrences that have, as their unconscious meaning, the shattering of "central organizing fantasies" of self in relation to selfobject. Their innovative treatment approach revolves around the transformation of these shattered fantasies in the intersubjective context of the transference-countertransference neurosis.

In this volume, the first synthesis of work on cognitive interference, leading researchers, theorists, and clinicians from around the world confront a number of important questions about intrusive thoughts and suggest a challenging agenda for the future.

Despite their prevalence and weight in many of his collected works and letters, Jung did not articulate a general theory of the ego and consciousness. Towards a Jungian Theory of the Ego examines the development of Jung's concept of the ego as he expanded and revised this concept, from his earliest formulations about consciousness while a student, to his mature thoughts at the end of his life. Drawing on Ego Psychology as a theoretical framework, Evers-Fahey proposes that Jung uses the concept of ego in four distinct ways and that he developed and used his ego concept based on two discrete paradigms. These distinctions explain the confusion and ambiguity found when examining the development of Jung's analytical psychology over his lifetime. This book provides an examination of ego development and ego defenses based on a unique Jungian standpoint, as well as discussion of the relationship between the ego and the Self and the ego and 'the individuum'. Furthermore, the inclusion of a historical framework helps to place the development of these concepts in context. This book proposes a theory of ego psychology based on Jungian theory rather than traditional psychoanalytic theory, thereby filling a gap in the knowledge of Jungian theory. The book will be essential reading for academics and postgraduate students engaged in the study of Jungian psychology and psychoanalytic theory and will also be valued by those interested in Jung and ego psychology more generally.

This volume contains an array of essays that reflect, and reflect upon, the recent revival of scholarly interest in the self and consciousness. Various relevant issues are addressed in conceptually challenging ways, such as how consciousness and different forms of self-relevant experience develop in infancy and childhood and are related to the acquisition of skill; the role of the self in social development; the phenomenology of being conscious and its metapsychological implications; and the cultural foundations of conceptualizations of consciousness. Written by notable scholars in several areas of psychology, philosophy, cognitive neuroscience, and anthropology, the essays are of interest to readers from a variety of disciplines concerned with central, substantive questions in contemporary social science, and the humanities.

This is the original work on which Hans Eysenck's fifty years of research have been built. It introduced many new ideas about the nature and measurement of personality into the field, related personality to abnormal psychology, and demonstrated the possibility of testing personality theory experimentally. The book is the result of a concentrated and cooperative effort to discover the main dimensions of personality, and to define them operationally, that is, by means of strictly experimental, quantitative procedures. More than three dozen separate researches were carried out on some 10,000 normal and neurotic subjects by a research team of psychologists and psychiatrists.

A special feature of this work is the close collaboration between psychologists and psychiatrists. Eysenck believes that the exploration of personality would have reached an advanced state much earlier had such a collaboration been the rule rather than the exception in studies of this kind. Both disciplines benefit by working together on the many problems they have in common.

In his new introduction, Eysenck discusses the difficulty he had in conveying this belief to scientists from opposite ends of the psychology spectrum when he first began work on this book. He goes on to explain the basis from which Dimensions of Personality developed. Central to any concept of personality, he states, must be hierarchies of traits organized into a dimensional system. The two major dimensions he posited, neuroticism and extraversion, were in disfavor with most scientists of personality at the time. Now they form part of practically all descriptions of personality. Dimensions of Personality is a landmark study and should be read by both students and professionals in the fields of psychiatry, psychology, and sociology.

Attachment has long been a key area of social development. Work on attachment processes has involved a variety of species as well as humans in diverse cultures and at various points in the life cycle. This volume presents research devoted to the meaning and implications of the attachment concept, including possible indices of attachment, the role of learning, whether or not attachment is best treated as continuous or discontinuous, and considerations for viewing attachment as a trait across environmental settings or as a process with functions that operate differently in disparate settings. Other psychological-process concepts, such as imprinting, relationships, and identification are also discussed. Because the contributors are active researchers and theorists, this volume may help establish trends and determine directions to shape literature on attachment for years to come.

Time Line Therapy and the Basis of Personality is a compelling study of the important elements that make up a person's core personality, and a detailed exploration of - and introduction to - how Time Line therapy works in practice. Written by Tad James and Wyatt Woodsmall, Time Line Therapy and the Basis of Personality is a compelling study of the important elements that make up a person's core personality, and a detailed exploration of - and introduction to - how Time Line therapy works in practice. Utilizing discoveries made by Richard Bandler, Time Line Therapy and the Basis of Personality expands and updates our knowledge of how people actually store their memories, and sheds light on the effect that the system used for memory storage has on the individual. The authors contend that the concept of Time Line, or the notion of time that you have stored in your mind, shapes and structures your experience of the world, and therefore shapes your personality. Time Line therapy is therefore based on the premise that the client goes back to the first time they remember a particular problem, does change work - utilizing Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) to eliminate irritating behaviors or issues - and, if necessary, goes to subsequent times when their behavior or response was a problem, and undertakes further change work to resolve it. Written in an informative and engaging manner, Time Line Therapy and the Basis of Personality offers readers the opportunity to see how Time Line therapy works - providing a clear description of how to elicit the Time Line, and sharing step-by-step methods to subsequently help the client to release a limiting decision or trauma, remove anxiety, or set a future goal. All of these key aspects are explained using clear language and easy-to-follow steps, and the authors' expert commentary is further complemented by examples, exercises and transcripts in order to help the reader transfer the theory into effective practice. In Section I, the authors explain the NLP Communication Model and share their in-depth analysis of the filters - values, beliefs, attitudes, decisions, memories and meta programs - which we subconsciously use as we process the world around us and which form the basis of our personalities. Section II provides a comprehensive description of the Time Line and how it works: laying down a theoretical basis for the technique before offering insight into its practice and application with a demonstrative transcript of Time Line elicitation and change work in order to illustrate the concepts explored. In Section III the authors move on to carefully survey simple and complex meta programs (and how they can be changed) before exploring the formation, evolution and changing of values in Section IV, which includes a helpful exercise that gives guidance on how to elicit values from the client. Exploring many interesting contexts and how personality can be positively changed to help people live happier lives, Time Line Therapy and the Basis of Personality is a worthy addition to any therapist's or NLP practitioner's library and is suitable reading for anyone interested in behavioral change. Time Line Therapy and the Basis of Personality was originally published in 1988 by Meta Publications. Previously published as ISBN 978-091699021-3

Identity has been a topical issue in both popular and social science literatures for the past forty years. The writings of Erik Erikson on the identity formation process of late adolescence have provided an important theoretical foundation to clinical, counseling, and educational practices. As the literature on adolescent development has burgeoned over the last three decades, so have efforts to understand, more systematically, the means by which young people find their occupational, religious, political, sexual and relational roles in life. One of the most popular research traditions to spring from Erikson's clinical observations has been the ego identity status approach developed by James Marcia. This approach has expanded Erikson's concept of identity to describe four distinct styles by which adolescents and adults deal with identity-defining issues. The present volume reflects the most recent efforts of social scientists who have contributed further to the work that Erikson and Marcia began -- an exhaustive analysis of the issues inherent in the adolescent identity formation process.

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI, MMPI-2, and MMPI-A) and the Rorschach are the two tests used most widely in clinical personality assessment to evaluate personality functioning, current emotional state, and the presence, nature, and severity of psychopathology, as well as to formulate treatment interventions. Psychologists' vigorous interest in and intense loyalty to the Rorschach and MMPI are reflected in the large and still growing theoretical and empirical literature concerning these tests. Given the enduring popularity of these two tests, it is surprising to find that only a small percentage of these numerous studies have examined the relationships between the two.
Both tests provide valuable information about an individual's symptoms, behavior, emotions, interpersonal functioning, self-concept, defenses, and the dynamics underlying their behavior. Although much has been written about each test individually, little has been written about how to use the two tests together even though many psychologists use a battery of tests when conducting personality assessments in clinical practice. The basic premise of this book is that psychologists' armamentarium of assessment techniques can be strengthened by using the MMPI-2 and Rorschach together in a complementary fashion, and that essential information may be lost if one test is used to the exclusion of the other.
The book examines interrelationships between the MMPI-2 and Rorschach on several different levels including empirical and research findings, conceptual relationships, and integrated interpretations using a series of in-depth case presentations. A balance is maintained between the foundation provided by research and by clinical theory for conceptualizing, understanding, and treating patients with a variety of psychological disorders. This volume illustrates the contribution psychological test findings make to clinical decision making and differential diagnosis, and discusses the links between test data, clinical judgment, and DSM-IV.

Both chess play and psychological research offer rewards to their participants in the form of intellectual satisfaction. It seems to follow that combining these two forms of activity, by carrying out research into chess play, should be a particularly engaging enterprise. In the mid-1980s enough was now known for it to be feasible to tell a reasonably satisfying story by piecing together the accumulated results of experiments on chess. There were remaining gaps in knowledge, but the structure of chess skill had at least become sufficiently evident to exhibit where the gaps lay. Originally published in 1985, this book was an attempt to summarize the progress that had been made at the time, recounting some of the components of the research process while describing how the chessplayer seems to think, imagine, and decide.

Traditionally the self and the individual have been treated as micro-versions of larger social entities by the social sciences in general, and by anthropology in particular. In Self Consciousness, Cohen examines this treatment of the self, arguing that this practice has resulted in the misunderstanding of social aggregates precisely because the individual has been ignored as a constituent element. By acknowledging the individual's self awareness as author of their own social conduct and of the social forms in which they participate, this informs social and cultural processes rather than the individual being passively modelled by them.

This book presents a close reading of four Indian narratives from different time periods (epic, Upanisadic, pre-modern and contemporary): Ekalavya's story from the Mahabharata (MBh 1.123.1-39), the story of Prajapati, Indra and Virochana from the Chandogya Upanisad (CU 8.7.1-8.12.5), the story of Sankara in the King's body from the Sankaradigvijaya, and A.R. Murugadoss's Hindi film Ghajini (2008), respectively. These stories are thematically juxtaposed with Patanjala-yoga, namely Patanjali's Yogasutra and its vast commentarial body. The sutras reveal hidden philosophical layers. The stories, on the other hand, contribute to the clarification of "philosophical junctions" in the Yogasutra. Through sutras and stories, the author explores the question of self-identity, with emphasis on the role of memory and the place of body in identity-formation. Each of the stories diagnoses the connection between self-identity and (at least a sense of) freedom. Employing cutting-edge methodology, crossing the boundaries of literary theory, story-telling, and philosophical reflection, this book presents fresh interpretations of Indian thought. It is useful to specialists in Asian philosophy and culture.

Originally published in 1979, the world's leading researchers contributed chapters describing their work on the orienting reflex in humans. The contributions, at the time current and comprehensive, in a sense that each facet of contemporary research was represented, address the orienting reflex, now recognized as a fundamental component of human learning and cognitive function. The authors contributing to this volume emphasize both theoretical and methodological issues, as well as present more empirical research. Here is a volume that spans all current work on the orienting reflex in humans, both basic and applied, from the laboratory as well as clinical data, and which would be of immense interest to psychologists, psychophysiologists, psychiatrists, physiologists, and all others interested in this fascinating topic.

Russell Meares has a solid reputation in Australia, the UK and US

The impetus for this volume came from the editors' belief that most current research and thinking about personnel selection and assessment in organizations considered only the perspective of the employer. The job applicant seeking to join the organization or the employee being considered for promotion or reassignment was typically given little attention from the designers of employment or assessment systems. They believed that this imbalance had several negative implications: 1. Organizational selection and assessment appeared to be the principal area within work and organizational psychology that had forgotten a basic tenet of the profession of psychology, namely, that the welfare of the individual is paramount. 2. A lack of concern for the individuals who were being assessed could result in additional criticisms of psychological assessment in employment settings. 3. The acceptability of selection and assessment devices and systems may impact in (largely) unknown ways on the decisions of individuals to apply for jobs or transfers, thus affecting the selection ratio and potential utility of such systems. 4. Individual reactions to the characteristics of assessment and selection devices could affect the accuracy of the information obtained about those individuals, adversely affecting the reliability and validity of resulting personnel decisions. Informally discussing these concerns with their professional colleagues, the editors found that others were similarly troubled. Their next response was to organize a three day conference bringing together a number of researchers in applied psychology to present papers and participate in discussions related to balancing individual and organizational needs in selection and assessment. Revisions of the papers presented at this conference form the core of this volume.

Originally published in 1979, this title represents a summary of 17 years of research centring around the Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS) and the theory from which the test was derived. Now an integral part of personality testing, including adaptations for use with children, this reissue is a chance to see where it all began.

In this important new book, the distinguished psychoanalyst Christopher Bollas extends his exploration of the inner world of human experience. In Being a Character, he argued that Freud's vision of the dream process is a model for all unconscious mental experience. In Cracking Up, he suggests that the rhythm of that experience-from moments of psychic intensity which we have every day and which we respond to first by cracking up the various factors that went to into them (remembered, bodily, instinctual), and then by recombining them in a new understanding of ourselves-that this unconscious rhythm, fully engaged in, is vital to individual creativity. It develops what Bollas calls a separate sense, with which we assess the immeasurable meanings of our own experience and which are sympathetically attuned to the lives of other people. Bollas examines how people educate one another in the idioms of their unconscious lives, and he considers the nature and consequences of the traumas that inhibit the freedom to do this. He studies what we mean by the past-is it ominously unchangeable, or can history be a creative, open understanding of experience? We come to know who we are by giving form and meaning to our past, yet what do we mean by the self? Bollas's answer suggests yet more ways in which the separate sense expresses each person's unique qualities.