Personality and Psychopathology

Having conversations with like-minded colleagues whose ideas are not only intellectually respectable but stimulating is, for me, one of the great pleasures of life.  Perhaps the next best thing is to listen in on that kind of conversation when one cannot join it.  Craig Piers has given us just such an exciting opportunity, and I have greatly enjoyed and learned from exchanges between the authors and the central figure.  It is all the more entrancing for me since that person is my old friend David Shapiro, and not just because he here is the warm, open, thoughtful sort of person he always is. Also, I now realize, it is because to discuss ideas with him has always helped me in ways I hadn't understood as well as I do after reading his autobiographical introduction. He has been able to carry over from his way of doing therapy the enabling of the person he is talking with to gain self-knowledge and self-understanding, just from his way of listening and being. I believe that an experience of a similar kind awaits any reader of this book.
Robert R. Holt, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, New York University
David Shapiro is one of the giants of psychoanalytic thinking.  Central to his contribution is his focus on character, how it underlies actions, and how attention to action is essential to psychotherapy. Appropriately, Shapiro's own character is revealed by his actions in the creation of this book.  When Craig Piers, the editor, suggested to him a book of invited essays about Shapiro's work, Shapiro countered with the concept behind this volume-a collection of dialogues between Shapiro and the invited contributors. Thus we are presented with Shapiro as active participant in discussing his ideas rather than as an object of admiration.
The result is a real treat.  The reader is able to participate in discussions among some of the major psychoanalytic and psychotherapeutic thinkers working today-Herb Schlesinger, Sidney Blatt, Morris Eagle, Mardi Horowitz, Paul Wachtel and others, and also of course Shapiro himself.  Their dialogues are lively, distinctions are clarified, convergences are underlined, and Shapiro's ideas are viewed from multiple perspectives.
This offers an immensely rewarding experience for any student, teacher or practitioner of dynamic psychology.
Robert Michels, M.D.
Walsh McDermott University Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry, Cornell University
Training and Supervising Analyst, Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research
Joint-Editor-in-Chief, The International Journal of Psychoanalysis
In his autobiographical notes which open this book, David Shapiro writes about his connection to Erik Erikson.  This is especially apt because this wonderful book shows Shapiro's generativity, one of Erikson's life cycle stages.  The book is a compendium of contributions from many of the major thinkers in psychology all of whom have been influenced by Dr. Shapiro's work  The dialogic format, original contribution - response by Dr Shapiro - and the author's rejoinder, enable the reader to enter into critical exchanges on personality and psychopathology which answer some questions and leave other questions open for more consideration.  This book will be of interest to those just entering the field and to serious scholars and experienced clinicians as well.
Arnold Richards, M.D.
Editor, internationalpsychoanalysis.net
Former Editor, Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association (1994-2003)
In this magnificent collection of "critical dialogues" with David Shapiro, Craig Piers has orchestrated a fitting tribute to a seminal thinker in our field. By assembling a stellar cast of contributors (many of them seminal thinkers themselves) who engage in a series of dialogues with Shapiro's thinking and then Shapiro's responses to their initial essays, Piers has created a stimulating and immensely satisfying intellectual, theoretical and clinical feast. These conversations reveal as much about the contributors' thinking as they do about Shapiro's and inspire Shapiro to further clarify and refine his own ideas. The result is much more than a tribute in any conventional sense. It is a creative and original contribution in and of itself.
Jeremy D. Safran, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology, New School for Social Research
Faculty, New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy & Psychoanalysis
Craig Piers has brought together an extraordinary group of leading psychodynamic thinkers to grapple with some of the basic notions underlying character. Organized around David Shapiro's seminal contributions, this book expands, illuminates and deepens our understanding of what goes into shaping the mind of the person as he or she shapes and is shaped by the interpersonal world.
Edward R. Shapiro, M.D.
Medical Director/CEO, The Austen Riggs Center
Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Yale Child Study Center
Craig Piers's book Personality and Psychopathology: Critical Dialogues with David Shapiro provides the reader with a thought-provoking and rare opportunity to observe a dialogue between Shapiro and the other contributors on the nature of character and psychotherapy. Piers brings together a diverse group of authors that includes psycholinguists, psychoanalysts, developmental psychologists, and addiction researchers and specialists...It is this important contribution to understanding psychodynamics and psychotherapy that forms the foundation of Shapiro's work and shapes the contours of the chapters of this book. Each author has taken a piece of Shapiro's work and has found within it a reflection of his or her own ideas. Although the authors give considerable deference to Shapiro, each also expands, debates, and challenges his ideas and offers up another perspective. It is an acknowledgment of the lasting impact of Neurotic Styles that an intersubjectivist, a developmentalist, and an evolutionary psychologist can each identify with Shapiro and find meaning and value in his work...Our understanding of Shapiro and development is greatly enhanced by these exchanges. Shapiro is candid and direct in his responses, yet gives careful consideration to the challenges to and elaborations of his efforts. A critique of his application of Piaget to character provides an opportunity for Shapiro to expand and even adapt his thinking with the new material provided...Personality and Psychopathology would be an asset to anyone doing psychodynamic therapy. Straightforward enough for the beginning psychotherapist, it also offers a valuable elaboration of Shapiro's familiar work.
Dr. Michael B. Donner
Chair of California Psychological Association Ethics Committee
American Psychological Association, PsycCRITIQUES
In dialogue with David Shapiro, Craig Piers has successfully edited a most interesting volume whose focus is Shapiro's contribution to psychoanalytic psychology. The title of this book is apt. The book is comprised of papers from several scholars who take up the relevance and implications of Shapiro's work. Many contributors, including Paul Wachtel and Sidney Blatt, are central to the contemporary endeavor of psychoanalytic psychology, whereas others, such as Louis Sass and Mardi Horowitz, may be considered to have a wider compass that includes phenomenology in literature and psychiatric diagnosis respectively. In addition to such variety, Piers and Shapiro opted for a conversational format that situates the work in a lively manner...The importance of this book is highlighted for me as other work (e.g., Medina, 2011) on exaggerated suffering, notable on its own and falling within the spirit of Shapiro's understanding that mind determines a drive, fails to make note of Shapiro's contribution. This, I think, is not due to a failure to research the literature on the part of the author, but to the wild and wooly nature of psychoanalytic literature. That some contemporary writers and students of psychoanalysis who would resonate with his work have not been fortunate to discover it more than justifies the publication of this volume, which affords the opportunity for discovery, and, to that end, I highly recommend it.
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Louis Rothschild, Ph.D.
DIVISION/Review, Division 39, American Psychological Association
Personality and Psychopathology: Critical Dialogues with David Shapiro is an astutely assembled compilation of essays from well-respected and diverse psychodynamic theorists that, in equal parts, pays homage to Shapiro's highly influential contributions to the understanding of character while also challenging some of his conceptualizations of psychopathology. Based on their understanding of Shapiro's concepts, the contributors typically point to limitations they perceive in his theory and purport ways in which their own theories overcome the shortcomings. Each essay is followed by Shapiro's response to the authors. Within these responses, Shapiro provides by far the most interesting content of this book. Shapiro not only delivers elegant and pointed responses to each of the criticisms but also provides perhaps the most detailed explanations of his concept of Autonomy yet published, from the broadest diversity of theoretical perspectives...While reading this book, I was struck by the many impressive essays by very accomplished psychologists who dueled with Dr. Shapiro, raising arguments and suggesting comparison between their own theories and his based on their understanding of Shapiro's concept. Upon reading Shapiro's responses it was clear to me that none of the arguments or criticisms delivered a formidable challenge to his original concept. To be so bold, I think the critiques and comparisons lacked luster because the arguments seem heavily influenced by the authors' presuppositions, i.e. their preconceived ideas about what they think they know Dr. Shapiro to be saying...I believe if someone wants to challenge Shapiro's conceptualizations, one is first urged to obtain a faithful understanding of what Shapiro is actually purporting. For now, after reading Personality and Psychopathology cover to cover, I was left with the notion that Shapiro said it first and still says it best.
Arva Bensaheb, Ph.D., Cognitive Behavioral Institute of Albuquerque
Albuquerque, NM
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Book Reviews
(http://www.the-iacp.com/book-reviews)
Personality and Psychopathology: Critical Dialogues with David Shapiro, ably edited by Craig Piers, provides a comprehensive understanding of his influence. By having Shapiro engage individually in exchanges with a roster of distinguished psychologists and psychoanalysts-researchers and clinicians alike-Piers captures the scope and boundaries of his perspective. Shapiro's interlocutors-Herbert J. Schlesinger, Paul L. Wachtel, E. Virginia Demos, Sidney J. Blatt, Louis A. Sass, Morris N. Eagle, Mardi J. Horowitz, Michael F. Schober and Peter J. Glick, Lawrence Josephs, Craig Piers, Mindy Greenstein, and Andreas Evdokas and Ali Khadivi-bring their unique perspectives to bear on Shapiro's work. A noteworthy feature of this volume, which takes it beyond a simple collection of articles, is its emphasis on dialogue. From genuine dialogue comes new understanding; this volume articulates a complex theory of personality and psychopathology, and it is peppered with clinical wisdom about the therapeutic process...It is a unique and creative approach to personality and psychopathology, authored by a fiercely independent and acutely perceptive clinical psychologist.
Philip S. Wong, Ph.D., Long Island University-Brooklyn
Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Vol. 48, No. 4 ISSN 0010-7530
Imagine this! You have a learned and thoughtful colleague, David Shapiro, who has spent much of his adult life thinking through significant and problematic issues in personality, character styles and their defensive restriction, and other issues central to psychoanalytic theory and the therapeutic process. You have an opportunity to discuss his and your psychoanalytic views. Lengthy exchanges can take place that both illuminates and then clarifies similarities and differences about these vital ideas. This is a rare interactive dialogic exchange. Of course for this to prove a worthwhile endeavor both participants to this conversation need to be intellectually reflective, logical, lucid, and compelling. Craig Piers has gathered together just such a group to discuss the oeuvre of David Shapiro's intellectual productivity. The reader will be fascinated by the important variety of complex and thorny issues raised in these interchanges, and the scholarly journey this book offers.
Doris K. Silverman, Ph.D., New York University
Since the publication of Neurotic Styles (1965), David Shapiro has been one of the most constructive and conscientious critics of traditional psychoanalytic theory...   In this volume, Shapiro responds to each of twelve essays by prominent clinicians and researchers, who are then permitted a rebuttal to Shapiro's comments.  This format allows for a rich and lively dialogue, an inspiring model for discussions of contemporary psychoanalytic theory, in my opinion.  The individual essays differ in focus, some a direct response to Shapiro's teachings and writings, some amplifying Shapiro's ideas by introducing new material, others critically exploring issues raised by Shapiro's work... I think it would be a great mistake to judge this book as a contest between Shapiro and the psychoanalytic tradition.  Shapiro comes across as an outstanding clinician.  His sensitivity to his patients in their maladaptive self-understandings and self-presentations is extremely impressive.  He writes with subtlety and great intelligence.  The intellectual give and take among the participants in this outstanding discussion is where the real value of this book lies.  It stimulated me to think about many issues about which I had become somewhat complacent, and to organize my thoughts with new clarity.
Stanley R. Palombo, M.D.
Psychodynamic Psychiatry, Vol. 40, No. 2