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Understanding the complexity of the human being living in his environment requires knowledge from a wide variety of sources. In this book, written specifically for social workers, Strean brings together a wealth of information culled from the personality theories of a diverse group of clinicians. Social workers encounter the widest variety of clients and require a broad base of knowledge. Strean seeks to meet this need in this book.
Different personality theorists may be of more assistance to the social worker at different phases of the social work process. With this in mind, Strean first discusses the concept of personality, acknowledging the lack of consensus about defining this term. However, he finds Gordon Allport's formulation quite useful and consonant with the theories of personality discussed in the book. Allport's definition is: “Personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustment to his environment.”
Strean devotes a chapter to each of the following: Freud, Hartmann, Anna Freud, Erikson, Rank, Adler, Sullivan, Horney, Lewin, Rogers, and learning theory and behavior modification therapy. His selection is based on the applicability of the theorist's concepts to some phase of social work practice or theory.
The volume presents first aspects of the theorist's biography, second an outline and discussion of the theorist's major concepts, and finally a demonstration of which concepts of the theorist's may be used in social work practice and which ones can be applied in work with clients and client systems.
Strean's biographical introduction to the theorist's personality theory is aimed at demonstrating the connection between personal conflicts, the subject's attempts to master these conflicts, and the influence such a personal struggle plays in the development of one's theories. The implication can be drawn that the social worker's personal conflicts and his own attempts at mastery likewi