| Abstract: | Reviews the book, Applications of personal construct theory edited by J. Adams-Webber and J. C. Mancuso (1983). The 24 chapters of this volume are a selection from papers presented at the Fourth International Congress on Personal Construct Psychology (PCP) held in 1981. The title of the volume is perhaps misleading, as there are three discernible motifs in this varied assortment of offerings. These can be identified as those papers dealing primarily with theoretical issues, those concerned with the history of the theory and the man who developed it (George Kelly), and those that focus on applications of the theory. It is clear that ten chapters are theoretical, including the first nine and Bannister's concluding chapter on the self. If I were to assume that these efforts are representative of the development of PCP, my judgment would be that little important change in Kelly's ideas has occurred over the years. It is not easy to say why this is so, although the fact that Kelly died before he might have revised aspects of his theory has to be considered. Overall, however, the conceptual advances have a pallid quality and the occasional adulatory echoing of the master is disconcerting. Of the 11 or so empirical and applied chapters, a number point in useful and interesting directions. Several papers deal with PCP in relation to schizophrenic thought disorder, depression, chronic illness, anorexia nervosa, and obsessive neurosis. Neimeyer's chapter on sociohistorical influences in the development of PCP affords an opportunity to reflect upon the past, present, and future of Kelly's ideas--including the trend toward integration with other schools of thought despite Kelly's well-known resistance to direct comparison with other kindred theories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
