Character and Personality Types

by Nick Totton, Michael Jacobs

Overview

It is very difficult for the student or practitioner to find their way through the jungle of different personality typographies that has sprung up in the field of psychotherapy; and even harder for them to compare one system with another. This volume offers help by surveying how different schools of therapy approach a basic topic, the differences between people - including their attitudes, feelings, concerns and talents. It examines different systematic and non-systematic approaches to identifying different types of human being, exploring whether there are systematic ways in which humans vary, how we can assess the merit of different typologies, and whether personality typing is a helpful approach to therapy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780335206391
Publisher:	McGraw-Hill Companies, The
Publication date:	06/28/2001
Series:	Core Concepts in Therapy Series
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.59(d)

About the Author

Nick Totton originally trained as a post Reichian therapist. He is strongly influenced by Process Oriented Psychology (Arnold Mindell) and psychoanalysis (he has a MA in Psychoanlytic Studies from Leeds Metropolitan University). Nick now practises and teaches his own synthesis, Embodied-Relational Therapy.

Michael Jacobs retired in 2000 as Director of the Psychotherapy and Counselling Programme at the University of Leicester, having worked there for 28 years. He is now an independent consultant in psychotherapy and counselling, Fellow of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy, and a writer of a large number of key texts used in training.

Table of Contents

	Series editor's preface	ix
	Preface	xiii
1	Orientations	1
	Thesis, and ...	1
	... Antithesis	2
	Synthesis	2
	Effective practice	3
	Counter-arguments	5
	Classifying classifications	7
	Descriptive versus causal typologies	9
	Open versus closed typologies	10
	Tight versus fuzzy typologies	12
	Embodied versus mental typologies	13
	Pathological versus stylistic typologies	14
	Directive versus permissive typologies	15
	What makes an effective typology?	15
2	Character in psychoanalysis	17
	Character and symptom	18
	The descriptive approach	18
	The dynamic approach	20
	The structural approach	25
	Later innovations	27
	Erikson	27
	Fromm	28
	Object relations	29
	Self psychology	30
	Lacan	30
	Synthesis	30
	Character--normal or abnormal?	33
	Conclusion	34
3	Reich and his heirs	35
	Character and relationship	35
	Bodily aspects of character	36
	Social aspects of character	40
	Character as creative	41
	Later developments of Reichian character theory	42
	The character types as seen in different schools	42
	Working with character	44
	Conclusion	52
4	Jungian typology	54
	A useful tool	54
	The four types	56
	Perceiving and judging types	57
	Extraversion and introversion	58
	The 'inferior function'	61
	Balancing the functions	62
	Critiques and developments of Jungian typology	63
	Jungian personality inventories	65
	Falsification of types and the physiology of Jungian typology	66
	Hillman's radical orthodoxy	66
	Social and political implications	67
	Conclusion	68
5	Humanistic and research-based typologies	69
	Unwilling acquiescence	69
	Gestalt: unfinished business	70
	Maslow's hierarchy of needs	72
	Transactional Analysis	73
	Research-based typologies	78
	Left brain, right brain	78
	Styles of learning	80
	Sheldon's somatotypes	81
	Predisposition to illness	83
	Personality tests	84
	Conclusion	85
6	Transpersonal typologies	87
	The four elements	88
	Astrology	90
	The Medicine Wheel	91
	Ayurveda	93
	The seven chakra personality types	94
	Ayurvedic psychotherapy	97
	Ken Wilber	98
	Feeling and personhood	99
	The Enneagram	100
	Archetypal systems	101
	Conclusion	105
7	Conclusion	107
	Choosing between systems	107
	Practitioner diversity	108
	Integration	109
	State and process	111
	Form and causation	114
	Elements, character positions and chakras	115
	Integrating causal systems	117
	Dangers of integration	118
	Further reading	120
	References	122
	Index	132