Word: vaillant
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...research so far has been narrow, concentrating largely on white, middleclass American males. But in "separate studies, three of the most important life-cycle scholars-Psychiatrist Roger Gould of U.C.L.A., Yale Psychologist Daniel Levinson and Harvard Psychiatrist George Vaillant-have reached some remarkably similar conclusions that add new dimensions to the topography of postadolescent life. The main features...
...REACHING OUT. Following Erik Erikson, who found the dominant feature of the 20s to be a search for personal identity and an ability to develop intimacy, Gould, Levinson and Vaillant see this period as an age of reaching toward others. The growing adult is expansive, devoted to mastering the world; he avoids emotional extremes, rarely bothers to analyze commitments. To Levinson, this is a time for "togetherness" in marriage. It is also a time when a man is likely to acquire a mentor-a patron and supporter some eight to 15 years older...
...what I am, not what others (boss, society, spouse) expect me to be?" An active social life tends to decline during this period. So does marital satisfaction, and the spouse is often viewed as an obstacle instead of an asset. Marriage becomes particularly vulnerable to infidelity and divorce. Vaillant sees a crassness, callowness and materialism at this stage. Levinson detects a wrenching struggle among incompatible drives: for order and stability, for freedom from all restraints, for upward mobility at work...
...With Vaillant's guidance, the class tried to analyze Martha. She was in deep psychological trouble because, at 52, she was immersed in fantasy instead of reality. She was hurt and angry over the early loss of her mother and was still hoping, unrealistically, to find someone to replace her. Vaillant pointed out that she was also "still very involved with Daddy" and had never, in imagination, stopped "trying to give him a son." Martha, Vaillant warned, "is a good example of a character type you are going to come up with again and again among patients: hysterical, orally...
...George, the class concluded that he was a masochist who often tried to conceal his aggressiveness behind a facade of passivity. Explained Vaillant: "George presents himself as a martyr, but he manages to torture everybody. His indifference is provocative, and that's one of the ways you diagnose someone as what we call 'passive-aggressive' and not indifferent...