Personality Development and Psychopathology: A Dynamic Approach

by Norman Cameron, Joseph F. Rychlak

a college grade text.

Genres: Psychology

Hardcover

First published February 21, 1985

Reviews

[Michael Kulyk · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brilliant encyclopedic book (782 pages) regarding the Freudian model of personality development and it's application to understanding a broad spectrum of psychopathologies/problems in living. It is so clearly written and well explained that almost anyone could understand it. It essentially does what Otto Fenichel sought to do with his opus 'The Psychoanalytic Theory OF The Neurosis', only professor Cameron's book is much more accessible and clearly explained.
Professor Cameron consistently remains within Sigmund and Anna Freud's drive structural theory of the mind. Psychopathology is viewed in terms of emotional conflict based upon the fixation of drives and the over use of defense mechanisms developed prior to the later defense mechanism of repression. In doing this Professor Cameron succeeds in the completion of Anna Freud's work that she started in the early 1930's with her book 'The Ego And The Mechanisms Of Defense'. Unfortunately this achievement has never been properly recognized. I believe this may be in part because although Norman Cameron was a qualified psychiatrist and psychologist, as well as a Yale professor, he wasn't a qualified psychoanalyst. Despite this the book is unequaled as an explanation of a broad spectrum of psychopathologies based upon Freud's mature theory.
The first edition was published in 1963 and there has been a second edition which is co authored with one of his students Joseph Rychlak which was published in 1985. The second edition is slightly shorter in length and introduces some discussions regarding neo Freudian theorists such as Karen Horney and Heinz Kohut. However it is still a dominantly Freudian text and Joseph Rychlak's dialectical explanation of Freud's central concepts is very sophisticated.
I came upon professor Cameron's book over thirty years ago when I started working in the field of mental health. And because of the books clarity ,coherence , consistency and it's explanatory value, it's teachings remained with me as I worked with people diagnosed with severe and enduring mental health disorders.
It's a wonderful book and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who works in the field of mental health or who wants to gain a deeper understanding of the human mind from a Freudian/psychoanalytic perspective.

[pjr8888 · Rating 4 out of 5]

textbook @ Professional School of Psychology, 1996