Adaptation to Life by George E. Vaillant (English) Paperback Book

Description: Adaptation to Life by George E. Vaillant George Vaillant discusses these and other questions in terms of a clearly defined scheme of "adaptive mechanisms" that are rated mature, neurotic, immature, or psychotic, and illustrates, with case histories, each method of coping. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description Between 1939 and 1942, one of Americas leading universities recruited 268 of its healthiest and most promising undergraduates to participate in a revolutionary new study of the human life cycle. The originators of the program, which came to be known as the Grant Study, felt that medical research was too heavily weighted in the direction of disease, and their intent was to chart the ways in which a group of promising individuals coped with their lives over the course of many years.Nearly forty years later, George E. Vaillant, director of the Study, took the measure of the Grant Study men. The result was the compelling, provocative classic, Adaptation to Life, which poses fundamental questions about the individual differences in confronting lifes stresses. Why do some of us cope so well with the portion life offers us, while others, who have had similar advantages (or disadvantages), cope badly or not at all? Are there ways we can effectively alter those patterns of behavior that make us unhappy, unhealthy, and unwise?George Vaillant discusses these and other questions in terms of a clearly defined scheme of "adaptive mechanisms" that are rated mature, neurotic, immature, or psychotic, and illustrates, with case histories, each method of coping. Author Biography George E. Vaillant is Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Table of Contents * Preface, 1995 * Cast of Protagonists * Part 1: The Study of Mental Health: Methods and Illustrations * Introduction *1. Mental Health *2. The Men of the Grant Study *3. How They Were Studied *4. Health Redefined--The Joyful Expression of Sex and of Anger * Part 2: Basic Styles of Adaptation *5. Adaptive Ego Mechanisms--A Hierarchy *6. Sublimation *7. Suppression, Anticipation, Altruism, and Humor *8. The Neurotic Defenses *9. The Immature Defenses * Part 3: Developmental Consequences of Adaptation *10. The Adult Life Cycle--In One Culture *11. Paths into Health *12. Successful Adjustment *13. The Child Is Father to the Man *14. Friends, Wives, and Children * Part 4: Conclusions *15. The Maturing Ego *16. What Is Mental Health--A Reprise *17. A Summary * References Cited * Appendix A: A Glossary of Defenses * Appendix B: The Interview Schedule * Appendix C: The Rating Scales Kirkus US Review How men adapt to life: the conclusions of an ambitious research project initiated nearly 40 years ago. Limited to bright, white, promising college men - a pilot population - in the late Thirties and early Forties, the Grant Study reconstructed childhoods via subject and parent interviews, observed the young men in college, and followed them up at regular intervals for 30 years. Most subjects were conscientious about maintaining contact and honest - eventually - about private transactions. Vaillant, a Harvard psychiatrist and current director of the Study, interviewed extensively, streamlined the data, and now has shaped the findings for a general, educated readership. Indebted to both Freuds (father and daughter) and to Erikson for his psychiatric orientation, he proceeds cautiously and is assiduous in illuminating his own biases. The men themselves emerge not as "fugitives from a script by Tennessee Williams" (a frequent case history complaint) but as scrupulously delineated personalities exhibiting enormously variable adaptive behaviors - the ego mechanisms of defense, here calibrated in a maturational scheme. Vaillant maintains, as others have, that these adaptive techniques (e.g. sublimation, hypochondriasis, intellectualization) are as significant in determining the course of a mans life as established factors like heredity, environmental influences, and psychiatric intervention. For example, he demonstrates how those from barren childhoods used immature defense mechanisms (fantasy, projection) and had lifelong problems sustaining intimate relationships while those from warm, stimulating homes evolved mature mechanisms (suppression, humor) and enjoyed deep friendships and (conventional) success as adults. However, manifestations of growth appear throughout adult life - not the "high drama" of Passages but those gradual modifications that reflect pyramiding vitality and strengths. Vaillant writes fluently and persuasively, anticipating objections and conferring meaning on all those little details - chest pain timing, verbal slips, open buttons - that always discomfit the skeptics. Despite some inherent conceptual limitations and the skewed population, a penetrating and revealing work. (Kirkus Reviews) Details ISBN0674004140 Author George E. Vaillant Short Title ADAPTATION TO LIFE Publisher Harvard University Press Language English ISBN-10 0674004140 ISBN-13 9780674004146 Media Book Format Paperback Year 1998 Imprint Harvard University Press Place of Publication Cambridge, Mass Country of Publication United States Illustrations 7 tables and 4 figures Residence MA, US Birth 1934 Affiliation Harvard Medical School Brigham and Womens Hospital Pages 416 DOI 10.1604/9780674004146 UK Release Date 1998-08-11 NZ Release Date 1998-08-11 DEWEY 155.24 Audience Tertiary & Higher Education AU Release Date 1998-08-10 Publication Date 1998-08-11 US Release Date 1998-08-11 We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:8302203;

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