Toward a Psychology of Being (An Insight Book)

About this book

This book is a continuation of my Motivation and Personality published in 1954. It was constructed in about the same way that is by doing one piece at a time of the larger theoretical structure. It is a predecessor to work yet to be done toward the construction of a comprehensive systematic and empirically based general psychology and philosophy which includes both the depths and the heights of human nature. The last chapter is to some extent a program for this future work and serves as a bridge to it. It is a first attempt to integrate the "health-and-growth psychology" with psychopathology and psychoanalytic dynamics the dynamic with the holistic Becoming with Being good with evil positive with negative. Phrased in another way it is an effort to build on the general psychoanalytic base and on the scientific-positivistic base of experimental psychology the Eupsychian B-psychological and metamotivational superstructure which these two systems lack going beyond their limits. It is very difficult I have found to communicate to others my simultaneous respect for and impatience with these two comprehensive psychologies. So many people insist on being either pro-Freudian or anti-Freudian pro-scientific-psychology or anti-scientific-psychology etc. In my opinion all such loyalty-positions are silly. Our job is to integrate these various truths into the whole truth which should be our only loyalty.