In recent years, there has been a remarkable increase in the number of publications rooted in H. S. Sullivan's interpersonal approach, which was enriched by a circular configuration of interpersonal variables originally proposed by the Kaiser group in the late forties and in the fifties. Among the books are Benjamin's (1996) Interpersonal Diagnosis and Treatment of Personality Disorders, Birtchnell's (1996) How Humans Relate, A New Interpersonal Theory, and Wiggins' (1996) The Five-Factor Model of Personality (particularly the chapter by Wiggins and Trapnell). A Special Series of the Journal of Personality Assessment (66, 2, 1996) was dedicated to Timothy Leary and his seminal book Interpersonal Diagnosis of Personality (1957). A highly sophisticated interpersonal circumplex assessment tool appeared a year ago , and a book edited by Plutchik and Conte (1997) is already available. Articles in journals are so numerous that it is sometimes difficult to keep up to date. If we take all this into account, we could say that Dr Kiesler's book provides the Maraschino cherry for a big, delicious, and nutritious cake.
Kiesler mentions two goals of his book, the first of which is to provide an exhaustive coverage of contemporary interpersonal theory and research into personality, psychopathology, and psychotherapy. The second goal is to simultaneously weave in, as unifying threads, his own interpersonal communication formulations. In fact, Kiesler uses results from more than 20 years of research as a framework for a critical review and an integration of an enormous amount of literature (about 1000 references). He summarizes his point of view in a mature and concise way with the help of a series of `Propositions' that run from the beginning to the end.
The twelve chapters are divided into two parts. In the first part, Kiesler's main contribution is probably the `Maladaptive Transaction Circle', which serves both as a bridge between normal and abnormal behavior and as an explanatory model of abnormal behavior. Translated into the concrete problems of a patient, this model provides also the cues to (interpersonal) therapy. Within this part, the pivotal concept of complementarity is presented, including critics and countercritics.
The second part concentrates on applications of contemporary interpersonal theory. This is clearly a psychotherapy-centered part, where the analysis of interpersonal communication takes a central place.
Not everything in the book is beyond critique. However exhaustive the author wants to be, some of his analyses are incomplete. For instance, not much is said about psychopathic behavior and personality from the interpersonal perspective (see e.g.