The Normal Personality: A New Way of Thinking about People - Hardcover

Reiss PhD, Steven

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521881064 ISBN 13: 9780521881067

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2008

Synopsis

Many Psychologists regard personality and mental illness as closely related. The shadow of Freudian analysis looms over modern psychopathology, driving many psychologists to try to understand their clients' personal troubles and personalities using constructs developed to study mental illness. They believe that dark, unconscious mental forces that originated in childhood cause personality traits, personal troubles, and mental illnesses. Steven Reiss thinks problems are a normal part of life. In The Normal Personality, Reiss argues that human beings are naturally intolerant of people who express values significantly different from their own. Because of this intolerance, psychologists and psychiatrists sometimes confuse individuality with abnormality and thus over-diagnose disorders. Reiss shows how normal motives, not anxiety or traumatic childhood experiences, underlie many personality and relationship problems, such as divorce, infidelity, combativeness, workaholism, loneliness, authoritarianism, weak leadership styles, perfectionism, underachievement, arrogance, extravagance, stuffed shirt-ism, disloyalty, disorganization, and overanxiety. Based on a series of scientific studies, this book advances an original scientific theory of psychological needs, values, and personality traits. Reiss shows how different points on motivational arc produce different personality traits and values. He also shows how knowledge of psychological needs and values can be applied in counseling individuals and couples. The author describes new, powerful methods of assessing and predicting motivated behavior in natural environments including corporations, schools, and relationships.

About this title

About the Author

Professor Steven Reiss is the executive director of the World Society of Motivation Scientists and Professionals. He produced an influential scientific model of anxiety, called anxiety sensitivity (AS), that facilitated early identification of people at risk for various anxiety- and stress-related disorders. AS created new opportunities for ongoing large-scale NIH-funded research projects on prevention, military research on possible inoculation methods for post-traumatic stress disorder, and new psychological research on chronic pain and substance abuse. He constructed the Reiss Profile, an assessment instrument for determining what motivates someone, and published the first ever scientifically validated taxonomy of life motives (psychological needs). His motivation methods have been successfully used by major league professional teams, an Olympic gold medalist, a world champion team, and a growing clientele of human resource managers and executive job coaches.

Reviews

Starred Review. This latest from Ohio State University psychology professor Reiss (Who Am I?) takes on a good majority of working therapists and academics by positing that "values, not unconscious psychodynamics, drive the human psyche." With vigorous research, analysis and anecdotal evidence, Reiss argues convincingly that by addressing ordinary personal problems with "constructs developed to study mental illnesses," the community has pathologized normal human personality traits and behaviors: "orderliness is a mild form of Obsessive-Compulsive disorder; unhappiness is a mild form of depression." Reiss's model, "motivation analysis," sees problems as the result of frustrated goals or values in the here and now, rather than hidden reserves of anxiety or anger. One's mix of goals and values can be determined and analyzed using the Reiss Motivation Profile (RMP), based on what Reiss argues is the most complete taxonomy of personality yet developed. Extensive empirical research has led Reiss to identify sixteen basic desires (including acceptance, curiosity, family, power and tranquility) that, together, provide an accurate personality portrait. Reiss makes an accessible case for his approach's superior ability to understand problems and predict behavior. It should provide food for thought for anyone in the mental health community, as well as those who feel they've been underserved or misunderstood by traditional psychotherapy.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521881064
• ISBN 13: 9780521881067
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 212