ABSTRACT
The proliferation of personality theories during the twentieth century is itself an effect of modernity. The interest in broad perspectives on the nature of the individual such as those developed by Freud, Jung, Maslow, Fromm, Rogers and Horney stems in part from the displacement of theological visions of selfhood by secularization. Modern theories of personality can be seen as answering questions about the purpose of life and the goals of human development. Interest in theories of personality is also due to concerns about individuality fostered by the anonymity of life in mass society. Finally, concerns about personality are linked to the concerns of administrative steering systems which have found it necessary or profitable to develop more refined bureaucratic responses to manage individual differences such as ‘deviance’, ‘giftedness’ and ‘mental illness’.
