The Normal Personality A New Way of Thinking about People [Hardcover]

In this book, Reiss shows how normal motives - not anxiety or traumatic experiences - underlie many personality and relationship problems.Reiss explains a theory of personality based on a set of motivations and their strengths in individuals. Reiss shows how normal motives underlie many personality and relationship traits. Depending on the strength of each motivation, they shape the way each individual comes across to the world in their personality.Reiss explains a theory of personality based on a set of motivations and their strengths in individuals. Reiss shows how normal motives underlie many personality and relationship traits. Depending on the strength of each motivation, they shape the way each individual comes across to the world in their personality.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 al³G