A dialectic model of personality development and psychopathology: Recent contributions to understanding and treating depression

Psychological development is often portrayed as a linear, monotonic function, with each developmental phase following and deriving from a prior phase. We believe that psychological development, however, is complex and more aptly described as a dialectic process in which development occurs reciprocally across various developmental lines, such that development in one domain facilitates development in parallel but contrasting domains that then, in turn, facilitate further development in the original domain. The development of concepts of self and of significant others is an example of this reciprocal development, such that a more differentiated relationship with an other contributes to further differentiation within the self and, conversely, further differentiation within the self leads to further differentiation in relationships with others. Self and other are reciprocal constructs that develop in a mutually facilitating dialectic transaction.