true self

in psychoanalytic theory, the total of an individual’s potentialities that could be developed under ideal social and cultural conditions. The term is used in the context of Erich Fromm’s approach to neurosis as a reaction to cultural pressures and repressed potentialities. It is also used in the client-centered therapy of Carl Rogers and in the object relations theory of British psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott (1896–1971). The realization of the true self is a major goal of therapy.

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Psychology term of the day

January 18th 2025

hierarchical model of personality

a model of either within-person dynamics or individual differences in personality in which some psychological constructs are viewed as high-level variables that organize or govern the functioning of other lower level variables. For example, a hierarchical model of personality traits might view the construct sociability as being at a lower level in a hierarchy than the construct extraversion: Sociability would be seen as a form or example of the higher level trait of extraversion.