Personality Theory and Therapy

When I was with Ministry in Human Sexuality, I took a couple of classes at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln in personality theory. I appreciated very much the thought of Maslow and Ken Wilber: in other words, developmental psychology. Wilber's synthesis of many developmental theories in both Eastern and Western psychologies made a lot of sense to me. I would highly recommend Transformations of Consciousness; Conventional and Contemplative Perspectives on Development, by Ken Wilber, Jack Engler, and Daniel P. Brown.

From a very different point of view, perhaps, I found the theory of George Kelly, a psychologist who was first trained in physics, very interesting. (See Kelly, A Theory of Personality; the Psychology of Personal Constructs.) His thought emphasizes the freedom of the individual in "construing" one's own reality. One of his points, that we think by comparing and contrasting one thing with another, seemed to make sense as well.  If this interests you, visit this link for more.

In my case, I think a lot in continuua, but I haven't figured out how continuua fit in with PCP (if you have, send me a link!). For example, sexual orientation is not a two-dimensional either-or: either gay or not gay, heterosexual or homosexual. Sexual orientation is multivariant and each variable has a continuum of gradations. See Klein, Two Lives to Lead: Bisexuality in Men and Women.

In addition, I have also found these books to be of great interest and value:

• Thou Shalt Not Be Aware by Alice Miller
• Banished Knowledge by Alice Miller
• Making Sense of Suffering; the Healing Confrontation With Your Own Past, by J. Konrad Stettbacher
• The Real Self; A Developmental, Self, and Object Relations Approach, by James F. Masterson
• Becoming a Self in Adulthood by Dorothea S. McArthur
• Strong at the Broken Places; Overcoming the Trauma of Childhood Abuse, by Linda T. Sanford
• Victims No Longer; Men Recovering from Incest and Other Sexual Child Abuse, by Mike Lew