Putting the Pieces Together
Putting the Pieces Together was first published on line and formally copyrighted in 2014 and has been updated several times since. Most of the available contents found on this website are included in this book but with much more information. Human Psychology is probably the only branch of Science that has not had a standard established to compare deviations from standard to defined standard. My primary interest has been in defining that standard rather than defining and fixing deviations from the “standard”. In fact, in naming my book, I almost called it, “The Realm of Normal”.
My interest in psychology began when I took a course on business psychology. Then, around 40 years ago, when my employer sent me to a seminar titled, “Creating Productive Relationships”. This course was based upon the social style program developed by one Dr. David W. Merrill. In the realm of business psychology, this program introduced terms like Amiable, Analytical, Expressive, and Driver for people and introduced action plans for individuals within one category to deal with others in their same and in other categories. From there, I found “I’m OK – You’re OK” and “Games People Play”, both based upon the psychology of Dr. Eric Berne. In the end, I found much right and some errors in Dr. Berne’s theories of Transactional Analysis. In Dr. Thomas A. Harris’ “I’m OK – You’re OK”, I found many problems in his attempted justification of Berne’s theories. Dr. Berne’s colleague, Claude Steiner and his book “Emotional Literacy: Intelligence With A Heart” is included. I also read Dr. Dyer’s series of books beginning with “Your Erroneous Zones” through some nine or ten books following his transition from a working psychologist into philosopher like author. I did not spend much time with his last works. And, I found Myers-Briggs in “Gifts Differing” by Isabel Briggs Myers, “Type Talk” by O. Kroeger and Janet Thuesen, and “Do What You Are” by Tieger and Barron-Tieger, And the MBTI Manual (both 2nd and 3rd editions). The social style program of Dr. Merrill was found in just two works, “Personal Styles and Effective Performance” by Merrill and Read and “Social Style/Management Style by Bolton and Bolton. Desmond Morris (“Naked Ape”, “Human Zoo”, Man Watching”, Body Watching”) and Erich Fromm (“Art of Loving”) were also important to me. The book, “Blueprints: Solving the mystery of Evolution” by Edey and Johanson, gave me the tools to look at the pieces of the puzzle genetically. I did not pay much attention human group behavior. It was individual normal behavior that I was trying to describe.
The question then became for me as to what could be melded together to arrive at a picture of human individual behavior. How I now see the main elements of normal individual psychology coming together is what my book is about.
Chapter 1 – The first chapter is about Life Positions, States of Being, and Memories. Dr. Berne misread states of being. And , Dr. Harris was very wrong about memories.
Chapter 2 – The second chapter is a brief introduction on transactions or interchanges between individuals.
Chapter 3 – This chapter is about social style or the Dr. Merrill’s personality program.
Chapter 4 – This chapter is about the Myers-Briggs personality program.
Chapter 5 – In this chapter, the materials discussed are unified or brought together with much supporting detail. Many of the charts found on this website are included in this chapter.
Chapter 6 – Play is discussed in detail. All of the transformation steps are included for unplanned play transformations.
Chapter 7 – This chapter is about love and loving and is the longest in the book. The basic structure or outline is from the “Art of Loving” by Erich Fromm with expansions from the works of Claude Steiner in looking at the degrees of emotional awareness, giving or denying strokes, seeking forgiveness, and including granting or denying forgiveness.
Chapter 8 – Titled “Words and Games” is about recognizing and combating verbal assault.
The book is presently available from Smashwords.com as a e-book only but will be available at Amazon.com shortly.
What is My Psychological Type 