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Biomedical subjects

G E Atwood

Publications and source records attributed to G E Atwood.

16 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1983

Inventors of new selves.

This paper delineates a pattern of personality organization in which an individual is self-defined as having an identity that has been produced independently of all prior experiences. Usually there is a history of several radical changes of self-concept, in the conscious sense. Two psychodynamic bases of this pattern are discussed: one involving a flight from engulfment in others' perceptions and definitions, and the other involving a flight from a sense of irrevocable inner badness. In both cases, the childhood origins appear to be located in the pathogenic responses of caretakers during the phases of separation and individuation. Patients showing this pattern present special problems for the psychoanalyst. The main hazard one encounters in treating such people is that the patient will respond to the analyst's efforts to illuminate his or her personality structure and psychic origins with a sudden redefinition of the self and a breaking off of therapy. We have presented some treatment recommendations based on our experiences working with such people that involve substantial modifications of classical analytic technique. Central in these recommendations is the emphasis we have placed on the potential value of the analyst's empathically guided personal openness in the conduct of therapy.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

The pursuit of being in the life and thought of Jean-Paul Sartre.

This paper has examined the relationship between the life and the thought of Jean-Paul Sartre. The central themes of Sartre's personal existence are shown to revolve around a struggle for self-definition and self-formation, rooted in the empathic failures of significant others during his formative years. It is argued that Sartre's experience of this struggle is mirrored and symbolized by the dialectic of being and nothingness which constitutes the central preoccupation of his philosophy.

France↗
PubMed1976

On the subjectivity of personality theory.

Every theorist of personality views the human condition from the unique perspective of his own individuality. As a consequence, personality theories are strongly influenced by personal and subjective factors. These influences are partially responsible for the present day lack of consensus in psychology as to basic conceptual frameworks for the study of man. The science of human personality can achieve a greater degree of consensus and generality only if it begins to turn back on itself and question its own psychological foundations. The role of subjective and personal factors in this field can be studied and made more explicit by means of a psychobiographical method which interprets the major ideas of personality theories in the light of the formative experiences in the respective theorists' lives. This method is briefly illustrated by an examination of the influence of personal experiences on theoretical concepts in the work of Carl Jung, Carl Rogers, Wilhelm Reich, and Gordon Allport. The subjective factors disclosed by psychobiographical analysis can bee seen to interact with influences stemming from the intellectual and historical context within which the theorist work. The psychobiographical study of personality theory is only one part of a larger discipline, the psychology of knowledge, which would study the role of subjective and personal factors in the structure of man's knowledge in general.

Behaviorism↗