Personality Psychology and Postmodernism

Interest in constructing theories of the individual person as a whole has been relatively weak since 1950. This disinterest, especially in the past 2 decades, may, it is suggested, be partly due to the growth and popularity of postmodern thought, which seems to be in conflict with the idea that behavior is controlled by real psychological properties within the individual. The aim of this article is to question some of the main postmodern assumptions that represent obstacles to a renewed interest in the nature of the individual. It is concluded that the parts of postmodernism that are inconsistent with a science of the person as a whole are all false—and that the part that is true is consistent with a science of the individual.