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Typically, textbooks written specifically for college 'personality' courses present the reader with the broad outlines of several major theories of personality. The usual contents include a précis of Freud's and Kurt Lewin's seminal ideas, a sampling of a behavioristic approach, and of one that emphasizes social determinants. The authors' own principal contribution in such books resides in their analysis of the methodological requirements for a theory of personality. The best of such texts remains the Hall and Lindzey Theories of Personality.
The present volume represents a different approach to the writing of a personality textbook. Here, aspects of personality development and functioning are considered from essentially one point of view: the psychoanalytic. The book is really four separate texts. The authors, each influenced in some significant way by psychoanalysis, are in their own right major contributors to the psychological literature. Part One, by Irving Janis, considers human behavior in situations of conflict, stress, and trauma. Part Two, by George Mahl, presents a summary of psychoanalytic ideas about drive and ego development, with a focus on conflict resolution and defense. Part