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Shapiro's first book, Neurotic Styles, written in 1965, has become a classic in the field of character. In it, Shapiro developed the concept
of styles as "a form or mode of functioning." He carefully delineated "ways of thinking and perceiving, ways of experiencing emotions, modes of subjective experiences in general, and modes of activity that are associated with various pathologies."1 His major contribution was in the demonstration that such ways of thinking are a factor in determining "the shape or form of symptom, defense mechanism, and adaptive trait as well."2 Thus, the lack of sharpness or perception in the hysteric facilitates repression.
The problem with the concept, as used by Shapiro, lies in his attributing to these autonomous ego functions a primary causative role in psychopathology.
The current book deals with the treatment of the neurotic conditions outlined in the first book. Although Shapiro does not refer, except incidentally, to diagnostic entities, his examples are mostly drawn from obsessional and hysterical disorders. He has wisely titled his book, Psychotherapy of Neurotic Character and not Psychoanalysis of Neurotic Character, for his method of treatment is far removed from a traditional psychoanalytic approach, with the very limited view he takes of the nature of neurosis.
The book is divided in three parts: General Principles; The Therapeutic Material; and The Therapeutic Process.
Shapiro develops a theory of neurosis which reifies subjective experience and its vicissitudes. He is critical of a version of classical theory which posits the person as a marionette acted upon by irrational forces. In this version, the individual's consciousness is reduced to that of an innocent bystander. "Classical dynamic formulations of nuclear neurotic conflicts do not include the processes and reactions of subjective experi