Abstract

The subject matter of this book is subliminal perception and microgenetic perceptual processing, two important topics on the interface between perception and personality. It presents a different way of handling these topics, biological in its emphasis on process, humanistic in its focussing on the dynamics of individual experience.
The reader will not only find new theoretical perspectives but a host of new, efficient and penetrating methods for analyzing problems of personality and psychopathology. The book is filled with empirical data supporting its theoretical and methodological claims.
Main Features:
- New perspectives on information processing in relation to personality.
- New methods applicable in many fields, such as clinical psychology, developmental and personality psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience, education (creativity), etc.
- Constructive analysis and critical review of the fields of subliminal perception and microgenesis.
Douglas Derryberry
Readers with a psychoanalytic orientation will find this material fascinating. Many chapters provide useful theoretical overviews along with focused experimental techniques. They go beyond the usual emphasis on denial to consider additional defenses such as isolation, projection, and introjection. The book may also be of interest to those involved in experimental approaches to personality, for it does provide some innovative techniques. The physiological methods may be of special value in providing converging measures of preconscious processes. Perhaps the volume's greatest strength is its consistent emphasis on individual differences. As a whole, it is successful in conveying the idea that perception is a dynamic process within which personality factors play an important role.
Contemporary Psychology