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Foundations of personality
BOOKREVIEWS
P. TYRER and G. STEIN (Ed.): Personality Price: f 15.00.ISBN o-902241 -52-4.
Disorder
Reviewed.
London:
995 Royal College
of Psychiatrists
(1993) P/b. 354~~.
This book contains reviews, by leading authorities in the field, of significant theoretical and empirical advances in the classification and treatment of personality disorders. Divided into 13 chapters, the book comprises three main parts: (I) the concept of personality disorder, its historical roots and its demarcation from other psychiatric disorders; (2) the classification of personality disorders, concentrating particularly on borderline types and those which involve erratic and aggressive behaviour; (3) the treatment approaches and results of outcome studies. The reviews cover such diverse areas as the roots of concepts of personality disorder in philosophy to the study of genetic factors. For those with a specific interest in personality disorders, this book is required reading. For readers of this journal with an interest in more general aspects of personality, this book is of importance in revealing the diversity of dysfunctional personality which any adequate descriptive and causal model of personality must address. There is evidence that some hiosocial models of personality (e.g. Cloninger’s tridimensional model) have begun to focus on personality (dis)order in the development of theoretical models. The dimensional approach may help to organize the large array of different personality disorders which DSM-III-R incorporates. It is therefore perhaps surprising that dimensional models of personality disorders, of which there are several, are largely absent from this book (neither extraversion nor psychoticism merit a single line in this book!; a chorus of cheers from some no doubt, but surely not from those concerned with the theoretical understanding of personality disorders). It is obvious that psychiatric and psychological perspectives on personality (dis)order have a long way to go before common ground is achieved. It may be timely to produce a Personality Disorder Reviewed from the psychological perspective; and then a Personality Order and Disorder Reviewed uniting both perspectives. P. CORR
J. HETTEMA,and I. J. DEARY (Ed.): Foundations ISBN O-7923-223 l-2.
of Personality.
London:
Kluwer Academic
(1993).H/b. 28 lpp. Price: f86.00.
The contributions to this book arose out of a NATA funded conference of the European Association of Personality Research (EAPP) held in The Netherlands in August 1992. The aim of the conference was to provide an international perspective on social and biological aspects of personality research. The book comprises 1 I main chapters and 1 I “commentary” chapters. These chapters cover genetic and environmental influences (Bouchard), conditions for a paradigm of personality psychology (Eysenck), identifying basic dimensions of personality (Van Heck), the regulatory theory of temperament (RTT), person-situation interactionism (Larsen, Endler), and the evolutionary approach (Buss). This diversity of approaches highlights the lack of a common international (or national) perspective on issues in personality research: it draws attention to the fact that there is not, as yet, a universally accepted paradigm for personality research, and nor does there seem to be a perceived need for such a paradigm among researchers (indeed, from the contributions to the book, it might even appear that some researchers think that the search for such a paradigm is a contradiction in terms). Not for the first time, Eysenck takes a different line: he argues that not only is such a paradigm necessary but it is also possible (even at the present time). Perhaps a greater focus in the conferenceibook on the biological basis of personality (Eysenck, Gray, Cloninger, etc.) might have suggested common paradigmatic paths for researchers to follow. This book does a good job of presenting the disparate views prevalent in personality research, and the “commentary” chapters give a feeling of the “cut and thrust” of the conference proceedings. If the book serves no other purpose than to highlight the need for, but absence of, a common approach (or, at the very least, complementary approaches) to personality research then Hettema and Deary’s efforts will be rewarded. Agreement on the scientific definition of personality could be the focus of the next Foundations of Persona& book. As Eysenck points out in his chapter, the current state of personality research resembles something of a “Dutch auction”. More worrying, the current conception of personality seems lost in Wonderlund: when we use the word “personality”, we use it to mean anything we want it to mean, P. CORR
P. TYRER and G. STEIN (Ed.): Personality Price: f 15.00.ISBN o-902241 -52-4.
Disorder
Reviewed.
London:
995 Royal College
of Psychiatrists
(1993) P/b. 354~~.
This book contains reviews, by leading authorities in the field, of significant theoretical and empirical advances in the classification and treatment of personality disorders. Divided into 13 chapters, the book comprises three main parts: (I) the concept of personality disorder, its historical roots and its demarcation from other psychiatric disorders; (2) the classification of personality disorders, concentrating particularly on borderline types and those which involve erratic and aggressive behaviour; (3) the treatment approaches and results of outcome studies. The reviews cover such diverse areas as the roots of concepts of personality disorder in philosophy to the study of genetic factors. For those with a specific interest in personality disorders, this book is required reading. For readers of this journal with an interest in more general aspects of personality, this book is of importance in revealing the diversity of dysfunctional personality which any adequate descriptive and causal model of personality must address. There is evidence that some hiosocial models of personality (e.g. Cloninger’s tridimensional model) have begun to focus on personality (dis)order in the development of theoretical models. The dimensional approach may help to organize the large array of different personality disorders which DSM-III-R incorporates. It is therefore perhaps surprising that dimensional models of personality disorders, of which there are several, are largely absent from this book (neither extraversion nor psychoticism merit a single line in this book!; a chorus of cheers from some no doubt, but surely not from those concerned with the theoretical understanding of personality disorders). It is obvious that psychiatric and psychological perspectives on personality (dis)order have a long way to go before common ground is achieved. It may be timely to produce a Personality Disorder Reviewed from the psychological perspective; and then a Personality Order and Disorder Reviewed uniting both perspectives. P. CORR
J. HETTEMA,and I. J. DEARY (Ed.): Foundations ISBN O-7923-223 l-2.
of Personality.
London:
Kluwer Academic
(1993).H/b. 28 lpp. Price: f86.00.
The contributions to this book arose out of a NATA funded conference of the European Association of Personality Research (EAPP) held in The Netherlands in August 1992. The aim of the conference was to provide an international perspective on social and biological aspects of personality research. The book comprises 1 I main chapters and 1 I “commentary” chapters. These chapters cover genetic and environmental influences (Bouchard), conditions for a paradigm of personality psychology (Eysenck), identifying basic dimensions of personality (Van Heck), the regulatory theory of temperament (RTT), person-situation interactionism (Larsen, Endler), and the evolutionary approach (Buss). This diversity of approaches highlights the lack of a common international (or national) perspective on issues in personality research: it draws attention to the fact that there is not, as yet, a universally accepted paradigm for personality research, and nor does there seem to be a perceived need for such a paradigm among researchers (indeed, from the contributions to the book, it might even appear that some researchers think that the search for such a paradigm is a contradiction in terms). Not for the first time, Eysenck takes a different line: he argues that not only is such a paradigm necessary but it is also possible (even at the present time). Perhaps a greater focus in the conferenceibook on the biological basis of personality (Eysenck, Gray, Cloninger, etc.) might have suggested common paradigmatic paths for researchers to follow. This book does a good job of presenting the disparate views prevalent in personality research, and the “commentary” chapters give a feeling of the “cut and thrust” of the conference proceedings. If the book serves no other purpose than to highlight the need for, but absence of, a common approach (or, at the very least, complementary approaches) to personality research then Hettema and Deary’s efforts will be rewarded. Agreement on the scientific definition of personality could be the focus of the next Foundations of Persona& book. As Eysenck points out in his chapter, the current state of personality research resembles something of a “Dutch auction”. More worrying, the current conception of personality seems lost in Wonderlund: when we use the word “personality”, we use it to mean anything we want it to mean, P. CORR