Neurotic Styles (The Austen Riggs Center Monograph Series, No. 5) [Paperback]

David Shapiro (Author), Robert P. Knight (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2, 1973 | ISBN-10: 046509502X | ISBN-13: 978-0465095025 | Edition: 1

This new edition of one of the books most closely identified with clinical psychology since 1965 will expose a new generation to Shapiro’s stunningly defining conceptualizations of the Obsessive-Compulsive, Paranoid, Hysterical, and Impulsive ways of being.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

David Shapiro, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology, Graduate Faculty, at the New School. He is the author of Neurotic Styles, Autonomy and Rigid Character, and Psychotherapy of Neurotic Character. He practices psychotherapy in New York City.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; 1 edition (January 2, 1973)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 046509502X
• ISBN-13: 978-0465095025
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #42,197 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #64 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Mental Health > Compulsive Behavior

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Seminal Work with Stylistic Problems, January 5, 2006

By 

Dr. Gary Seeman (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Neurotic Styles (The Austen Riggs Center Monograph Series, No. 5) (Paperback)

I agree with Peter Dunn, M.D., about the importance of this work and its historical place in understanding psychopathology. Please read his excellent review. However, Dr. Shapiro's writing style is an obstacle to understanding during a first reading. He needs a good editor. The book reads as if Dr. Shapiro dictated the text, mulling over what he was trying to say. Thus, it contains many turgid, run-on sentences. I often had to read a sentence again to understand its full meaning. This distracted me from following the overall concepts. The chapter on impulsive styles is especially repetitive. The stylistic difficulties that are distracting on a first reading don't get in the way as much the second time, when one is trying to remember key elements. At this point, Dr. Shapiro's parsing of shades of meaning offers subtle insights. Those insights could have been conveyed the first time by breaking one sentence into two or three, but the book is what it is. I recommend it, if you're willing to do the work. In comparison, I recommend the works of Glen Gabbard, M.D., whose writing is especially lucid.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Inside View of Neurosis., January 28, 2010

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Steven Daedalus "Steve" (Deming, NM USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Neurotic Styles (The Austen Riggs Center Monograph Series, No. 5) (Paperback)

Another reviewer had to read this in preparation for his graduate work in psychology. He found it "fatuous." I read it during my graduate work in psychology and found it refreshing.

It was a relief to read something that was qualitative in its nature. There's not a statistic in a cartload. Instead, Shapiro takes an inside point of view -- or what's called an "emic perspective" in cultural anthropology -- to examine ways of thinking ("cognitive styles") found in different neurotic personality types -- the obsessive-compulsive, the paranoid, the hysterical, and the impulsive. The result is an easily understood set of organized personal experiences, and their intuitive explanations, based on Shapiro's own research and experience. It's less "formal", less behavioral a set of descriptions, than impressionistic. The subject is the mind, not so much the activities that express it. It's really so old-fashioned that it's revolutionary.

Well, I'll try to sketch an example of how he goes about his business. The first neurotic style Shapiro examines is the obsessive-compulsive. The central image is that of a worried and rigid guy whose mind is controlled by a strict "overseer" laying down rules that the victim must follow. The interests of the obsessive-compulsive become so narrowed by these rules that everyday problems become a desperate matter of finding a solution that "fits". The solutions lose flavor and become technical. If he listens to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, he's listening to the fidelity of the recording, not responding to the music. He can't see the forest because he's focused on a particular tree.

How much psychology do you need to know in order to get something out of the book? Not much. If you know that Freud believed that adult neuroses were rooted in childhood experiences, that's about the level you're required to operate on. Shapiro makes no attempt to explain the development of these disorders. His analysis is all in the here-and-now. And there's hardly a word about treatment.

I suppose opinions can legitimately vary. For my part, I not only got a lot out of it but enjoyed reading it. I'm rereading it now, twenty-five years after the first time.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful Book, November 16, 2010

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Dr. Damon Labarbera (Florida) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Neurotic Styles (The Austen Riggs Center Monograph Series, No. 5) (Paperback)

This is finely written, brilliant, and in its day, extremely forward looking book. Essentially it predates the idea of, in psychiatry, Axis II, or personality disorders. The writing is clear, poignant and full of examples. Nowadays, it may seem dated, since some of the Axis II categories have been refined, changed, or even eliminated by the various DSM committees, and accumulated research. I read this book many times as an undergraduate and graduate student (it was recommended by Bryan Hayden at Brown for our beginning personality class) and it served as a great introduction to the notion of personality as an invariant, durable style of interacting. Also, it hearkens back to a time when maybe psychologists were, perhaps, a bit more literary minded: the writing is at that level of quality. Damon LaBarbera, PHD