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The purpose of the present paper is to demonstrate by empirial data the validity of the following five propositions concerning personality development, the etiology of the neuroses, and therapy.
During the process of personality growth each stage is a preparation for the next, the fulfillment of one being a necessary precedent for satisfactory development through the next; similarly, pathological development in one stage leads to pathological development in subsequent ones.
The pathological deviations in personality growth which culminate in development of the neuroses are caused principally by early (and continued) deprivation of basic emotional needs, combined with the acting out by parents, or significant others, of their own neurotic patterns upon the child.
The correction of such pathological deviations and the redirection of the patient toward a healthy and adjusted maturity involves his learning how to secure from his present environment satisfaction of current needs.
Satisfaction of current needs can occur only following or during the patient's reevaluation of his self-concept and the realistic assessment of his actual abilities.
Such a new attitude toward himself, which is based upon the reality of his actual abilities, develops in therapy largely as the result of three related processes: the development, through interpretations, of insights into his unconscious motivations and the reasons for his past and present behavior; a new type of interpersonal relatedness; and the incorporation of a new and valid set of reflected appraisals.
The observations upon which the preceding formulations are based were secured during the treatment of 153