Search For The Real Self

Unmasking The Personality Disorders Of Our Age

James F. Masterson

• Publisher: Free Press
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN:
  9780029202920
• eBook ISBN:
  9781451668919
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Abnormal Psychology
• Index: Psychology

From the authoritative expert in personality disorders, Search for the Real Self is a thorough dissection of how one's real self is developed, how it relates to the outer world, and how personality disorders are understood and treated in our modern society. Personality disorders—borderline, narcissistic, and schizoid—have become the classic psychological disorders of our age. Outwardly successful, charming and powerful, personality-disordered individuals have long confounded their colleagues, family, lovers and employees—as well as mental health professionals. The author helps the reader understand them. After describing how the healthy real self develops and functions, he explains what can go wrong. Drawing on case histories, he shows how the false self behaves in relationships and on the job, and then delineates appropriate treatments, offering real hope for cure.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Chapter 1: The False Self: The Internal Saboteur
• Chapter 2: The Development of the Real Self
• Chapter 3: The Real Self in Action
• Chapter 4: Fear of Abandonment: The Self Under Siege
• Chapter 5: Portrait of the Borderline
• Chapter 6: Portrait of the Narcissist
• Chapter 7: The Challenge of Intimacy
• Chapter 8: Psychotherapy with the Borderline
• Chapter 9: The Borderline Syndrome in Adolescence
• Chapter 10: Psychotherapy with the Narcissist
• Chapter 11: The Therapist as the Guardian of the Real Self
• Chapter 12: The Creative Solution: Sartre, Munch, and Wolfe
• Epilogue
• Notes
• Selected Bibliography
• Index