Playing Pygmalion: How People Create One Another - Paperback

by Ruthellen Josselson (Author)

We create the characters that people our lives. Although others appear to us to be who they just 'are', there are complicated unconscious psychological processes that lead us to experience people in ways that we ourselves construct. This book analyzes how four pairs of people, central in each other's lives, 'create' one another. It demonstrates how each of us is like a theater director, casting others into roles on our stage, even as others are casting us into their dramas.

Author Biography

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.