Social and Personality Development: Infancy Through Adolescence

Melanie Klein

The Selected Melanie Klein

This book provides a thorough introduction to the stimulating and controversial ideas of the woman who charted the field of child analysis--Melanie Klein. Freud was surprisingly silent on the "dim and shadowy era" of earliest infancy. It was Melanie Klein, one of Freud's most innovative followers, who revolutionized child analysis with her "play technique," illuminating the baby's most primitive fantasies and conflicts. Now, at last, the most important of Klein's writings are together in one volume, brilliantly edited and introduced by one of Britain's best known feminist thinkers. The Selected Melanie Klein feature the significant ideas of the woman who took the field of child analysis by storm, including her ideas on treatment of psychotics, revisions of Freud's ideas on female sexuality, the discovery of the direct connection between normal ego development and psychosis, and the important role fantasy plays in daily life.

James F., M.D. Masterson

Search for the Real Self: Unmasking the Personality Disorders of Our Age

From the authoritative expert in personality disorders, Search for the Real Self is a thorough dissection of how one's real self is developed, how it relates to the outer world, and how personality disorders are understood and treated in our modern society. 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.

Anne Sheffield

Depression Fallout: The Impact of Depression on Couples and What You Can Do to Preserve the Bond

Using the vivid, poignant and personal stories of the members of a website support group she founded (www.depressionfallout.com), Anne Sheffield, the author of two highly acclaimed books on depression, provides an honest record of what happens to a love relationship once depression enters the picture, and offers solid advice on what the non-depressed partner can do to improve his or her own life and the relationship. Of the millions of people who suffer from a depressive illness, few suffer in solitude. They draw the people they love - spouses, parents, children, lovers, friends - into their illness. In her first book, H ow You Can Survive When They're Depressed , Anne Sheffield coined the phrase 'depression fallout' to describe the emotional toll on the depressive's family and close friends who are unaware of their own stressful reactions and needs. She outlined the five stages of depression fallout (confusion, self-doubt, demoralisation, anger, and the need to escape) and explained that these reactions are a natural result of living with a depressed person.