Self and Society

The relation between individual and collective processes is central to the social sciences, yet difficult to conceptualize because of the necessity of crossing disciplinary boundaries. The result is that researchers in different disciplines construct their own implicit, and often unsatisfactory, models of either individual or collective phenomena, which in turn influence their theoretical and empirical work. In this book, Drew Westen attempts to cross these boundaries, proposing an interdisciplinary approach to personality, to culture, and to the relation between the two. Part I of the book sets forth a model of personality that integrates psychodynamic analysis with an understanding of cognitively mediated conditioning and social learning. In Part II, Westen offers a view of culture that blends symbolic and materialist modes of discourse, examining the role of both ideals and 'material' needs in motivating symbolic as well as concrete social structural processes. In Part III, he combines these models of personality and culture through an examination of cultural evolution and stasis, identity and historical change, and the impact of technological development on personality. Throughout the book, Westen provides reviews of the state of the art in a variety of fields, including personality theory, moral development, ego development, and culture theory. He also addresses and recasts central issues in psychology, sociology, anthropology, and social theory, such as the relations between emotion and cognition; social learning and psychodynamics; ideals and material forces; and individual and collective action. His book will appeal to students and scholars in all the social sciences, as well asto any reader concerned with understanding the relation between individuals and the world in which they live.

Preface; Part I. A Theory of Personality: 1. Personality theory: the three faces of psyche; 2. Emotion: a missing link between psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioural psychology?; 3. The structure and dynamics of personality; 4. The development of personality, narcissism, and moral judgment; Part II. A Theory of Culture: 5. Social theory in sociology and anthropology; 6. Societal structure and dynamics; 7. The development of collectivism and the culture ideal; Part III. Personality and Culture: A Synthesis: 8. Culture and personality: dying species or vigorous hybrid?; 9. Psychic and sociocultural structure and dynamics; 10. Personality and communitarian collectivism; 11. The psychodynamics of modernization; 12. Personality and sociocultural change; 13. Breakdown and recovery: paradigmatic processes in personal identity and cultural integration; 14. Personality and individuation; References; Index.