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Kirk J. Schneider, The Paradoxical Sef: Toward an Understanding of Our Contradictory Nature. New York: Insight Books, Plenum Press, 1990, 235 pp., $20.95

Kirk J. Schneider, The Paradoxical Sef: Toward an Understanding of Our Contradictory Nature. New... 90 BOOK REVIEWS Kirk J. Schneider, The Paradoxical Sef: Toward an Understand- ing of Our Contradictory Nature. New York: Insight Books, Ple- num Press, 1990, 235 pp., $20.95. The tradition that comprises phenomenology and existential philosophy provides psychology and psychotherapy with a foundation for practice. Concrete human limitations and everyday experience are ready themes that offer themselves to exploration and description. In The Paradoxical Self, Schneider follows in that tradition by thematizing a basic human contradiction. Starting from Kierkegaard's description of the contrast between finitude and infinitude, Schneider pursues its contemporary significance. He suggests that the "degree of abstraction" of Kierkegaard's "dualities" might obscure the existential roots of human dysfunction in that polarity. For infinitized and finitized Schneider substitutes the terms expansive and constrictive. In developing a "paradox principle" to describe what this duality indicates, he writes: The paradox principle embraces the following basic assumptions: (1) The human psyche is a constrictive/expansive continuum, only degrees of which are conscious. (2) Dread of constrictive or expansive polarities promotes dysfunction, extremism, or polarization (the degree and fre- quency of which is generally proportionate to the degree and frequency of one's dread). (3) confrontation with or integration of the poles promotes http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Phenomenological Psychology Brill

Kirk J. Schneider, The Paradoxical Sef: Toward an Understanding of Our Contradictory Nature. New York: Insight Books, Plenum Press, 1990, 235 pp., $20.95

Barclay, Michael W.
Journal of Phenomenological Psychology , Volume 24 (1): 90 – Jan 1, 1993
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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 1993 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0047-2662
eISSN
1569-1624
DOI
10.1163/156916293X00062
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

90 BOOK REVIEWS Kirk J. Schneider, The Paradoxical Sef: Toward an Understand- ing of Our Contradictory Nature. New York: Insight Books, Ple- num Press, 1990, 235 pp., $20.95. The tradition that comprises phenomenology and existential philosophy provides psychology and psychotherapy with a foundation for practice. Concrete human limitations and everyday experience are ready themes that offer themselves to exploration and description. In The Paradoxical Self, Schneider follows in that tradition by thematizing a basic human contradiction. Starting from Kierkegaard's description of the contrast between finitude and infinitude, Schneider pursues its contemporary significance. He suggests that the "degree of abstraction" of Kierkegaard's "dualities" might obscure the existential roots of human dysfunction in that polarity. For infinitized and finitized Schneider substitutes the terms expansive and constrictive. In developing a "paradox principle" to describe what this duality indicates, he writes: The paradox principle embraces the following basic assumptions: (1) The human psyche is a constrictive/expansive continuum, only degrees of which are conscious. (2) Dread of constrictive or expansive polarities promotes dysfunction, extremism, or polarization (the degree and fre- quency of which is generally proportionate to the degree and frequency of one's dread). (3) confrontation with or integration of the poles promotes

Journal

Journal of Phenomenological Psychology – Brill

Published: Jan 1, 1993

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