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In Psychotherapy of Neurotic Character, David Shapiro presents his approach to psychotherapy based on his long-standing interest in how the neurotic personality functions. It is an approach consistent with his classic work, Neurotic Styles and at the same time an extension of it.
The book is divided into three parts: Neurotic Character and Psychotherapy: General Principles; The Therapeutic Material; and The Therapeutic Process.
In this book the concepts character and personality are used interchangeably. Each remains undefined, and at times the author refers to neurotic character and at others to neurotic personality. The reader comes to accept that these words refer to the unique psychosocial functioning of a person without specifying psychic structure or function. A contrast to psychoanalytic theory comes immediately to mind: personality as a concept is not an integral part of psychoanalytic theory, whereas character has a long history (Baudry, 1984; Boesky, 1983), which for some elicits considerable controversy and for many has specific reference to observable patterns of psychic structure and behavior that evolve from underlying developmental precursors.
Neurotic styles have been described as products of the characteristic mentalities of neurotic persons. Symptoms are products of specific instances of such neurotic styles and therefore bear an essential similarity to the features of the neurotic personality. Symptoms and symptomatic reactions are not simply intrusions into everyday rational thought and attitudes, they always make sense. They are always in character in that they are consistent with the neurotic's subjective world and are products of it.
When Shapiro refers to the dynamics of the personality, he emphasizes that he is not referring to the familiar dynamics of impulse and defense (i.e., the dynamics of nuclear neurotic conflict); he is referring to his observation that the neurotic personality reacts against itself. In doing so, the person displays g