Playing Pygmalion ― How People Create One Another

Josselson (psychology, Fielding Graduate U.) examines why we humans create the characters of people in our lives and respond to what we have created rather than to the real person. She reminds us that we do this unconsciously and that therapists often fall into the same trap as she describes why we create one another, why we recreate others from memories, why we impose our own perceived faults over the characters of others, why we repress the fact we are making up the people around us, and how out own insecurities get in the way of understanding others as themselves. Annotation c2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Ruthellen Josselson, Ph.D. is professor of psychology at The Fielding Graduate University and was formerly professor at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem as well as at Harvard University. Recipient of the Henry A. Murray Award from the American Psychological Association and a Fulbright Fellowship, she is also a practicing psychotherapist. Her research interests focus on the use of narrative to understand people's life histories and she has authored several books on relationships and on women's identity. She has also co-edited the series The Narrative Study of Lives.