ABSTRACT
S. Mendlovic has proposed a multiple self theory of personality based on psychoanalysis. Mendlovic reviews and builds on the work of Melanie Klein and Donald Winnicott. The basic elements in Mendlovic's theory are labeled as "self appearances" and "multiple selfs," and he emphasized that the organization of this community of selves is critical. The multiple selves originate from the inner experiences created by the infant as a result of its interactions with its mother and, later, others. Eventually, social structures are created to organize these multiple selves. Mendlovic casts paranoia as a situation in which there is a totalitarian regime ruled by a single self. The multiple selves of the obsessive-compulsive patient are organized in a rigid and uncompromising bureaucratic structure. Eric Berne in his Transactional Analysis freed himself from the constraints of psychoanalytic theory, and yet imposed his own constraints.
