Product Description

Personality disorders - borderline, narcissistic and schizoid - have become the classic psychological disorders of our age. Outwardly successful, charming and powerful, personality-disordered individuals have long confounded their colleagues, family, lovers and employees - as well as mental health professionals. The author helps the reader understand them. After describing how the healthy real self develops and functions, he explains what can go wrong. Drawing on case histories, he shows how the false self behaves in relationships and on the job, and then delineates appropriate treatments, offering real hope for cure.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #37149 in Books
• Published on: 1990-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 244 pages

Customer Reviews

A bit academic, but will help your self discovery
This is the book that Dr. Drew on "LoveLine" recommends to his listeners.

This book will help you understand your behaviours in relationships and the driving force behind your behaviours. Primarily it deals with narcissism disorder, borderline peronality disorder, fear intimacy, abandonment depression and separation anxiety and how these underlying disorders manifests itself in your relationships. He describes the theories which explain the behaviour and then describes real life cases of people with these disorders and how they conduct themselves in relationships. After reading this, you will better understand your defenses that help the false self prevail over the real self and how to develop the real self so that you can express yourself genuinely in your life. You will also know how to recognize these behaviours in others and know which people to watch out for and know when you are engaging in descructive relationships. It really gives you some insight into yourself and others' actions. This is a great book for anyone looking to engage in some self therapy and discovering oneself. I highly recommend it.

Our Age and the Real Self
Masterson may be on to something in the title of this book (as was Lasch). A hundred years from now, "personality disorders" may be thought of as a cultural artefact, the product of mass delusions. That the book tackles an enormous range of human behaviour under the same clinical heading weakens its usefulness. Still, it is an interesting tour de horizon of personality disorders, the functions of the False Self, and the ways to revive, nourish, sustain, and "re-activate" the dilapidated True Self (rarely successfully - something the book cheerfully omits to mention)...

Good,but not enough info on adolescent narcissism.
This is a largely anecdotal book that does cover the behaviors and perceived reasons that contribute to these disorders. It was easy to read by a layman like myself, but failed to address the specific question I had in mind. This is particularly frustrating because I spoke to Dr. Masterson on the phone about this problem (adolescent clinical narcissism) and was assured that it did. Everything else is very well covered except this one subject. It is an interesting book that gives insight while helping to understand practical solutions to dealing with a person who exhibits one of these disorders.