The Paradoxical Self Toward an Understanding of Our Contradictory Nature

by Schneider, Kirk J.

• ISBN13: 9781573926362
• ISBN10: 1573926361
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-10-01
• Publisher: Humanities Press

Summary

As we enter the threshold of the new millennium, increased dangers face us on the foreign and domestic fronts: terrorism, rising substance abuse, youth violence, ethnic hatreds, and religious fundamentalism. On the individual level, people are experiencing rising levels of isolation, technological depersonalization, and existential emptiness. As a result, they feel angry, depressed, and directionless. Kirk J. Schneider, a leading existential psychologist, presents a model of breathtaking scope to redress these predicaments.

Author Biography

Kirk J. Schneider, Ph.D., a practicing, licensed psychologist, is president of the Existential-Humanistic Institute in San Francisco. He is also an adjunct member of Saybrook Graduate School and the California Institute of Integral Studies.

Table of Contents

Introduction	17	(4)
Paradox and the Long Shadow of Kierkegaard	21	(4)
The Paradox Principle: Basic Assumptions	25	(10)
Dysfunctional Extremes	35	(20)
Descriptions of the Dysfunctional	38	(2)
Hyperconstriction	40	(7)
Hyperexpansion	47	(3)
Mixed Dysfunctions (Constrictive/Expansive Blends)	50	(5)
The Basis for Dysfunctional Extremes: Background and Theoretical Roots	55	(44)
Psychoanalytic Limitations	59	(5)
The Limitations of ``Self Psychology'' and ``Clinical Psychoanalysis''	64	(7)
The Paradoxic Understanding	71	(4)
Developmental Paradoxes	75	(11)
Case Summaries of the Forms of Trauma	86	(8)
Acute Trauma	86	(3)
Chronic Trauma	89	(2)
Implicit Trauma: Case Overviews	91	(3)
Mixed Dysfunctions	94	(3)
Summary	97	(2)
The Extremism of Everyday Life: Conventional Answers to Terror	99	(38)
Idolatry	101	(2)
False Confrontations	103	(3)
Prejudice	106	(14)
Individual vs. Collective Insanity	120	(2)
Signs, Symbols, and Dreams	122	(15)
Optimal Confrontations with Paradox	137	(46)
Empirical Studies of Optimal Integration	141	(1)
Optimal Personality: A Study in Controlled Madness	142	(9)
Optimal Physical Health	151	(6)
Optimal Organizations	157	(3)
Optimal Societies	160	(7)
Optimal Development	167	(6)
Conclusion on the Empirical Status of Optimal Confrontations	173	(1)
Optimal Worship: Confronting the Paradoxes of Religion	173	(10)
Toward a Paradox-Based Therapy and a Therapeutic Rapprochement	183	(22)
Case Illustrations	194	(11)
Jane: A Case of Hyperexpansion	194	(4)
Sally: A Case of Hyperconstriction	198	(7)
Conclusion	205	(6)
References	211	(20)
Index	231