From Instinct to Identity begins an account of personalitydevelopment by tracing the legacy of the human speciesfrom its primate heritage to its present form. Findingsfrom ethology, primate studies, linguistics, and othersources are used to construct an account of the uniquefeatures of man. Th e evolution of early cultures is shownthrough use of anthropological work. The ideas of Sigmund Freud, particularly as modifi edby Erik Erikson, are presented together with the theoriesand fi ndings of Jean Piaget and his collaborators in a seriesof chapters that follow the person from infancy to adolescence.Other chapters examine play, dreams, and fantasy;anxiety and its eff ects on the development of self; moraldevelopment; and identity. Th e emphasis throughout ison the growth of self, and its impact on social norms. The author blends together theories and findingsfrom psychoanalysis, psychology, ethology, humanisticpsychology, and child development, develops a model ofhuman motivation in which the basic emotional systemsof love, anxiety, aggression, curiosity and intelligence aretraced from their primate background through the humanlife cycle. He brings together classic ideas on guilt andconscience with research on moral reasoning and egodevelopment,and clarifi es diffi cult ideas in a clear, directprose style. This classic volume, now available in paperbackwith a new introduction by the author, will fi nd a newaudience among anthropologists as well as psychologistsinterested in the evolution of human behavior. Louis Breger is professor of psychoanalyticstudies emeritus at the CaliforniaInstitute of Technology in Pasadena.He is a practicing psychotherapist andpsychoanalyst, and is the founding presidentof the Institute of ContemporaryPsychoanalysis, Los Angeles. He haswritten other books and a number ofscholarly articles on psychoanalytic topicsincluding the acclaimed biography, Freud:Darkness in the Midst of Vision, and Dostoevsky: The Author asPsychoanalyst.

From Instinct to Identity begins an account of personality development by tracing the legacy of the human species from its primate heritage to its present form. Findings from ethology, primate studies, linguistics, and other sources are used to construct an account of the unique features of man. The evolution of early cultures is shown through use of anthropological work. The ideas of Sigmund Freud, particularly as modifi ed by Erik Erikson, are presented together with the theories and findings of Jean Piaget and his collaborators in a series of chapters that follow the person from infancy to adolescence. Other chapters examine play, dreams, and fantasy; anxiety and its effects on the development of self; moral development; and identity. The emphasis throughout is on the growth of self, and its impact on social norms. The author blends together theories and findings from psychoanalysis, psychology, ethology, humanistic psychology, and child development, develops a model of human motivation in which the basic emotional systems of love, anxiety, aggression, curiosity and intelligence are traced from their primate background through the human life cycle. He brings together classic ideas on guilt and conscience with research on moral reasoning and ego development, and clarifies difficult ideas in a clear, direct prose style. This classic volume, now available in paperback with a new introduction by the author, will fi nd a new audience among anthropologists as well as psychologists interested in the evolution of human behavior.

This edited volume features cutting-edge work in moral psychology by pre-eminent scholars in moral self-identity, moral character, and moral personality.

About the Book: A species has a unique instinctive and singular behavioural pattern. All creatures belonging to a species have similar traits and their response to a stimulus is predictable. Not so in the case of human beings. From the stage of the Neanderthals, mankind has evolved in a distinctive manner, in overwhelming divisions — religious, political, regional, national, language, dress, education, etc. The list is long. Every identity has unique characteristics and rituals imposed on its members. Every creature is a different animal; the only thing common is the anatomy. This kaleidoscope of mortals, collectively called humans, is brutally cruel yet spiritually empathetic; kills fellow beings for trivialities yet gives its life for ephemeral emotions; embraces the strangers yet shuns one's kin; eulogises simplicity yet yearns for wealth — a world of striking contradictions. Every human conducts itself as per its taming, wearing a socially acceptable mask. But even a simple provocation dissolves the mask, and it comes to its natural self. The author has narrated situations arising from the conflict between the real self and the socially conditioned being in the stories in this collection. About the Author: Basant Kumar holds a degree in Science from the University of Allahabad. He graduated in Civil Engineering with Honours from the University of Roorkee (now IIT Roorkee). He was awarded the University Silver Medal. He retired as the Additional Secretary, Government of India. Very active post-retirement, as an independent freelance consultant in the field of Civil Engineering, he is also an Arbitrator and an Arbitration Consultant. He experienced various facets of life in several fields of activities and multifarious pursuits, as an engineer, administrator, and manager in the corporate world and also on the sports field. This vast exposure left a deep and indelible imprint of the human conduct in different situations on him. He intimately observed the compulsions, fears, and ambitions that navigated people on the path that they traversed in life. The stories in this collection bring out the subtleties of choices that protagonists make driven by their inner fragilities and fortitude. Basant Kumar enjoys playing golf and celebrating the unearned gifts of Holes-in-One, twice. He was part of the winning pair at the DLF Republic Day Cup, also twice. He also won the ‘closest to pin’ contest. In the time left over after golf and professional work, in that order, he writes. This is his fifth book. His Book "उच्छृंखल (Uchhrinkhal)" won the Gold Award for Best Coffee Table Book in Hindi Language by Federation of Indian Publishers.

In a hyper-individualistic age and in the face of the narrowly focused, policy-oriented research ubiquitous in the social sciences, this book revisits the humanistic world-view that is integral to Norbert Elias’s pre-eminent figurational-process sociology, with the aim of increasing the fund of sociological knowledge that has the human condition as its horizon. Clarifying the contentious ‘post-philosophical’ aspects in order to supplement standard histories of sociology with new insights, it offers incisive evaluations of some of the bewildered attempts by prominent sociologists to diagnose the malaise of contemporary globalised society. It also challenges the orthodox limitation of the empirical scope of sociology to ‘modernity’. With its ominous warnings of the destructive prevalence of ‘overcritique’ in the discipline and lack of in-depth sociological psychology, Post-Philosophical Sociology will appeal to scholars of sociology, psychoanalysis, social philosophy, cultural theory and social and political theory with interests in developmental and dynamic thinking and the history of the discipline.

Noted scholars from a broad range of sub-disciplines in psychology discuss the ways in which the memories of our lives come to influence who we are, our personalities, and our emotional functioning. Other topics covered include how our personalities and self-concepts influence what we remember from our lives, and the notion of memory and the self as interdependent psychological phenomena.

Human happiness has been a perennial concern of philosophy. The ancients believed that happiness represents the proper final end for mankind. Classical utilitarians held that it constitutes the only thing good in itself. Even the moral philosophy of the eighteenth century, while emphasizing duty, offered the promise of happiness. This work combines an analysis of the Western philosophical tradition with the insights of Eastern mysticism and modern physics to offer a series of recommendations aimed at achieving the goal of human happiness.

This dictionary is probably the first dictionary of human instincts to be published. Moreover, the Introduction of the dictionary contains the first publication of the new and important Bronston heritability coefficient. Note: A Dictionary of Human Instincts also appears as an appendix to Human Behavior: The New Synthesis by Mitch Bronston and Nils K. Oeijord.

The New Synthesis consists of 1) a new understanding of heritability, 2) a new interpretation and understanding of the broad heritability coefficient, 3) a new understanding of the human instincts, 4) a new understanding of normal and abnormal behavior, 5) a new interpretation and understanding of intellect and free will, 6) a new understanding of the behavior of genuinely identical MZA twins in different genuine free-choice environments, and 7) a new list of the human instincts.

Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral)--University of Limerick, Ireland, 2007.