Human adaptation and its failures

This book explores a set of related propositions that concern the field traditionally conceived as comprising psychiatric normality and psychopathology, considered here under the title "human adaptation and its failures." The term "human adaptation" refers to a person's response to the complexities of living in society. The intent is to consider pathological reactions, that is, unsuccessful and potentially destructive responses to the human condition, in the context of more positive, adaptive forms of human living. A general theory of success and failure in human adaptation would provide a unitary framework within which both effective and ineffective participation in society can be understood. This book offers such a theory and presents the evidence that supports it.