THE SEARCH FOR THE REAL SELF: Unmasking the Personality Disorders of Our Age

by ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 19, 1988

An eminent psychotherapist, author of several technical texts including Psychotherapy of the Borderline Adult (1976), explicates for laypersons the causes, dynamics, and treatments of borderline (between neurotic and psychotic) and narcissistic personality disorders. Both of these disorders, Masterson says, are rooted in the inability of pre-Oedipal (ages one to three) children to break out of their symbiotic relationship with the mother. This may be caused by a long-term separation from the mother or by her inability to encourage the child in the independent, adventurous action that promotes ""self actualization."" Such children develop a terror of abandonment that they mask by creating a ""false self"" in lieu of the real self they would have developed had they progressed normally. Borderline personalities hide behind a ""deflated false self"": they avoid situations or relationships that promote ""self-activation and self-expression."" They take jobs well below their capabilities and eschew--or fail at--intimate relationships. Narcissists--who are frequently highly creative or intelligent--have an ""inflated false self."" They must be spectacularly successful so that they can bask in the admiration of others. Freudian therapy, says Masterson, is useless for those mired in the pre-Oedipal stage. Borderline patients should be confronted and encouraged to break their lifelong dependency; narcissists, who cannot tolerate confrontation, should have their vulnerabilities interpreted for them by a therapist. An illuminating and engrossing work--although some psychological background is useful in dealing with Masterson's sometimes dense approach.

Pub Date: Sept. 19, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Free Press/Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1988

Categories: NONFICTION