ABSTRACT

This book is an attempt to add to the theoretical discussion regarding the nature of the intrapsychic and interpersonal transformational changes associated with the transition from adolescence to young adulthood. The author introduces the concept of the 'Transformational Self', a phase-specific dimension of the neural self, and demonstrates the enhanced explanatory power that it offers in attempting to examine the sometimes dramatic shifting self-states accompanying the metamorphosis from adolescence into young adulthood. A necessary precondition for the emergence of the Transformational Self is the maturation of the pre-frontal cortex and its enhanced neural connectivity. With this biological achievement, executive functioning, a strengthened ego/self capacity, can arrive at a mature level of external stabilization and internal, intrapsychic structuralization. Conceptualized in self-referencing metaphor and expressed and reinforced through long term potentiation (repeated firing patterns of synchronous neural assemblies), the late adolescent reconfigured self-state becomes a true developmental potentiality evidenced by the use of different self (and other) representations.

part I|22 pages

Context and Problem Formulation

chapter One|7 pages

Introductory considerations

chapter Two|12 pages

Theoretical considerations

part II|51 pages

The Nature of the Transformational Self

chapter |1 pages

Introduction to Part II

chapter Three|20 pages

The transformational self in adolescence

chapter |5 pages

After Notes to Chapters Two and Three

chapter Four|5 pages

Classification of transformational selves

chapter |3 pages

After Notes to Chapter Five

part III|73 pages

Contributions to the Understanding of the Transformational Self

chapter |1 pages

Introduction to Part III

chapter Seven|9 pages

The contribution from attachment theory

chapter Eight|17 pages

The contribution from neurobiology

chapter |4 pages

After Notes to Chapter Eight

chapter Ten|15 pages

The contribution from cognition

part IV|23 pages

The Appearance of the Transformational Self in Two Cases

chapter Eleven|21 pages

Two psychotherapies

part V|26 pages

Synopsis