| Abstract: | The reviewer notes that a professor of English and psychoanalyst, Norman Holland brings us illumination in the direction of humanity in an age when the mechanistic theme has become so prevalent in psychology, psychiatiry and psychoanalysis. Holland informs us of individuality, of uniqueness apart from the statistical heavy hand. Acknowledging his debt to Erikson and Lichtenstein, Holland uses the concept of identity to bring into coherence an individual's lifelong behavior. He views identity as a theme or style albeit with variations, that characterizes an individual from inchoation to the very end. Obstructions and interferences with the identity theme constitute frustrations, which in turn lead to crises and to the bevy of aberrations observed in the consultation room, in life, and in literature. In other words, we track the exquisitely fragile "I" and its vicissitudes. Although we are constantly doing new things, our "style" never changes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
