Claridge Gordon.Davis Caroline - Personality and Psychological Disorders

As is often the case, this book had a serendipitous beginning. More precisely, it started after one of us could not resist voicing his opinion to Arnold that there was a need for a book like Personality and Psychological Disorders. Before we knew it, we were writing one! And having finished it we can now see why there hasnt been one before, at least one at a factual level of complexity sufficient to be informative, but not too detailed to be inaccessible to the readers for whom it is mainly intended. We hope we have come some way towards striking that difficult balance; for each of the two areas covered is itself a huge branch of psychology, with many different viewpoints and examples that clamour to be represented. Indeed, the two topics individual differences and psychological disorders are generally taught separately in psychology degree courses and, in our experience, reference from one to the other, even if occurs, is sketchy and tentative. This is a pity because, as we try to show in this book, the study of personality may be usefully enriched by looking beyond the average and the healthy; whilst the deviant states of mind and behaviour that constitute the subject matter of abnormal and clinical psychology can scarcely be understood without reference to some concept of normality.

As described in the early chapters of the book, the arguments we develop and the material we present, concentrate on a certain way of thinking about the connection between normal and abnormal: one that draws particularly on its biology, yet without embracing a straightforwardly disease view of psychological disorder. This perspective has not always been uncontroversial and that is still the case in some quarters. We chose it because it is well-grounded in the history of ideas about the topic, is supported by considerable past and present scientific evidence, and, looking to the future, is likely to assume increasing importance as we begin to understand more about the origins of personality and its occasional manifestations in mental illness.

Although, as co-authors, we naturally share a common interest in this approach, we dont necessarily agree on every implication of it at the very least, we are sometimes led to place our emphases differently. We have not tried to conceal this by seeking to homogenize the text. On the contrary, we have allowed our respective interpretations of the books title to flourish, on the grounds that the learning process is a matter of finding out about different viewpoints and different interpretations of evidence, and then making up ones own mind.

There are a number of people we need to thank for their help and understanding during the course of constructing this book. There are those among our respective family circles who did not see enough of us, or when they did found us distracted and preoccupied. At Arnold we wish to thank Christina Wipf Perry, formerly Publisher for psychology, for commissioning us to write the book in the first place and, currently, Emma Woolf, Commissioning Editor for Psychology, and Jasmine Brown, Senior Desk Editor, for seeing it through to production.

Lastly, we thank the goddess for our shared sense of humour and each other for mutual support and encouragement during moments of writing crisis.

Gordon Claridge
Oxford
Caroline Davis
Toronto
July 2002