The Plural Self

Mick Cooper is Professor of Counselling Psychology at the University of Roehampton, where he is Director of the Centre for Research in Social and Psychological Transformation (CREST). Mick is a chartered psychologist, a UKCP registered psychotherapist, and a Fellow of the BACP. Mick is author and editor of a range of texts on person-centred, existential and relational approaches to therapy; including Working at Relational Depth in Counselling and Psychotherapy (2005, SAGE, with Dave Mearns), Pluralistic Counselling and Psychotherapy 2011, SAGE, with John McLeod) and Existential Therapies (2nd edn, 2017, SAGE). Mick has led a series of research studies exploring the processes and outcomes of humanistic counsel-ling with young people. Mick is the father of four children and lives in Brighton on the south coast of England.

Introduction - Mick Cooper and John Rowan Self-Plurality: The One and the Many PART ONE: THEORY The Normal Development of Subpersonalities - John Rowan The Alter Ego and D[ac]ej[gr]a Vu Phenomena - James S Grotstein Notes and Reflections If You Can't Be Jekyll Be Hyde - Mick Cooper An Existential-Phenomenological Perspective on Lived-Plurality Life inside Dialogically Structured Mentalities - John Shotter Bakhtin's and Volosinov's Account of Our Mental Activities as out in the World between Us Postmodern Culture and the Plural Self - Leon Rappoport, Steve Baumgardner and George Boone PART TWO: RESEARCH The Polyphony of the Mind - Hubert J M Hermans A Multivoiced and Dialogical Self The Multiple Brain and the Unity of Experience - Brian Lancaster Multiplicity in Cross-Cultural Perspective - Ruth-Inge Heinze Individual Differences in Pluralism in Self-Structure - John Altrocchi Subpersonalities and Multiple Personalities - Colin A Ross A Dissociative Continuum? PART THREE: PRACTICE Facilitating the Expression of Subpersonalities - Mick Cooper and Helen Cruthers A Review and Analysis of Techniques The Doorway into the Inner Deeper World Is the Instant of Peak Feeling in the Scene of Strong Feeling - Alvin R Mahrer The Internal Family Systems Model - Richard C Schwartz Pathways between the Multiplicities of the Psyche and Culture - Mary Watkins The Development of Dialogical Capacities

`I thoroughly recommend this book. I found it challenging, provocative, exciting and full of delights. (It makes such a change to be told that ideal personality characteristics would include a Monty Pythonesque sense of humour and a tolerance of mood-altering drugs!) While reading it I often felt nourished and refreshed.... So I advise you to give the many selves you are a treat, and read this book' - The Journal of Critical Psychology, Counselling and Psychotherapy `[This book's] fundamental thesis is a rather challenging one - the idea that the unified, singular "self", which we all take for granted we possess, does not exist... fascinating and important.... I will certainly revisit the book... when you're ready for a challenge, this book is certainly worth dipping into' - Counselling News `A useful contribution to a field that is as important as it is impenetrable, the nature of lived experience' - Counselling `The perspectives articulated in this book are important, the chapters are well written, and many of the ideas are intriguing. It is a useful book that should appeal to students and researchers in personality-social psychology, and therapists who are interested in relevant therapeutic techniques and their theoretical and empirical background.' - Personality and Individual Differences `I thoroughly recommend this book. I found it challenging, provocative, exciting and full of delights. (It makes such a change to be told that ideal personality characteristics would include a Monty Pythonesque sense of humour and a tolerance of mind-altering drugs!) While reading it I often felt nourished and refreshed' - The Journal of Critical Psychology, Counselling and Psychotherapy