A Theory of Personality

"A genuine new departure and a spirited contribution to the psychology of personality." —Jerome S. Bruner

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This original theory of personality is based on the concept that there are many workable ways by which individuals can construct their world. George Kelly's starting point and basic premise is that people's processes are psychologically channeled by the ways they anticipate events rather than by the ways they react to them. We develop new means of overcoming obstacles; we are, therefore, neither prisoners of our environment nor victims of our past.

In Dr. Kelly's groundbreaking theory, the patterns of our make-up, which he calls constructs, are the key to changing old patters. Each person anticipates events differently, and Dr. Kelly shows how we can begin to understand each person's unique constructs. In this way, a person is enabled to create alternative constructions—finding a sense of meaning in life, regaining control over his or her environment, and establishing new roads to mental health. This volume consists of the first three chapters of Kelly's two-volume work The Psychology of Personal Constructs.