Feeling and Personhood: Psychology in Another Key

By: John Heron

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Synopsis: John Heron presents a radical new theory of the person in which feeling, differentiated from emotion, becomes the distinctive feature of personhood. The author explores the applications of his ideas to living and learning and the text includes numerous experiential exercises. Heron considers how the person develops through various states and stages and contrasts the restricted ego with integrated personhood. Central to his analysis are interrelationships between four basic psychological modes - affective, imaginal, conceptual and practical. In particular, feeling is seen as the ground and potential from which all other aspects of the psyche emerge - emotion, intuition, imaging of all kinds, reason, discrimination, intention and action. Heron also shows the fundamental relation of his ideas to theory and practice in transpersonal psychology and philosophy. In the last part of the book, the author examines the implications of his theory for understanding and enhancing both formal and life learning. Feeling and Personhood will be essential reading for psychologists, educationalists, counsellors, psychotherapists and all those who believe it is time for a challenging alternative to traditional reason-centred and ego-bound psychology.