Table of Contents

Part I: The Problem of Self: In Search of a New Paradigm. The Legacy of Individualism: The Paradigm in Practice. Constructing a New Model. Part II: The Self in the Social Field: Relationship and Contact. The Self in Relation: Orienting and Contacting in the Social Field. The Self in Contact Integration and Process in the Living Field. Part III: Support, Shame, and Intimacy: The Self in Development. Support and Development: The Self in the Field. Shame and Inhibition: The Self in the Broken Field. The Restoration of Self: Intimacy, Intersubjectivity, and Dialogue. Part IV: The Integrated Self: Narrative, Culture, and Health. Self as Story: Narrative, Culture, and Gender. Conclusion: Ethics, Ecology, and Spirit: The Healthy Self.

About the Author

Gordon Wheeler, Ph.D., is a therapist in private practice, and teaches the Gestalt model widely around the globe. As author, editor, and translator he has contributed to a number of other books and articles in the literature of Gestalt, including The Collective Silence, On Intimate Ground, The Voice of Shame, and The Heart of Development. He also writes on issues of masculinity and men's development.

Reviews

"...an exploration of selfhood which will alter forever how we experience ourselves and our shared world. Gordon Wheeler has a gift for rendering scholarly ideas understandable, meaningful, and usable. Unlike many other deconstructive writers, he actually offers an alternative: an ecologically based paradigm of selfhood, firmly rooted in a contextualist, thoroughly intersubjective worldview." Lynne Jacobs, Training Analyst, Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis; Co-founder, Gestalt Institute of the Pacific