Volume 5, Number 4, 385-394, DOI: 10.1023/A:1026063429852

Idiodynamics in re Personality Theory and Psychoarchaeology

Saul Rosenzweig

From the issue entitled "Rosenzweig Jubilee Issue"

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Abstract

Idiodynamics is the science of the idioverse. The idioverse consists of the population of events experienced by a single unique individual. This conception supersedes that of personality because the idioverse purports to be a more direct and objective formulation. The idioverse is understood, in large measure, by ldquomarkersrdquo that are peculiar to the individual and are discovered through a study of the totality of the individual's expressed experience. Three types of norms afford these data for observation: the nomothetic, the demographic, and the idiodynamic. All are essential for an understanding of how the individual participates in the experience of the self and of others. A biogenic medium and a sociogenic medium overlap in the formulation of the idioverse, and these media overlap and converge to constitute a matrix that provides idiodynamic norms. Comprehension of the idioverse reveals the individual as a self-creative and dynamic process. Idiodynamics should be distinguished from the earlier idiographic approach to individuality. Psychoarchaeology is the reconstruction of biographical identities and/or sources. This methodology is well illustrated in Morton Prince's classic case of dissociation (Sally Beauchamp).

idiodynamics - norms - personality theory

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