Download or read book The Total Self System as an Organismic Conceptualization of Intrapsychic Functioning written by and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Theories are important scientific tools that can explain, predict, and control natural phenomena. Although most psychological theories are classified into one of four theoretical schools of thought, they are divided according to a more fundamental debate as to whether the origins of intrapsychic functioning adhere to mechanistic or vitalistic principles. Mechanistic principles address the passive and reactive nature of intrapsychic functioning, whereas vitalistic principles address its active and spontaneous nature. As mechanistic and vitalistic principles appear to be limiting in their one-sided orientations, this study proposes that there is a need for an organismic approach to theories of intrapsychic functioning. As a theoretical alternative, the general systems theory will be discussed as a holistic framework of living systems that incorporates the organismic principles of open systems and hierarchical order. Based in the organismic principles of the general systems theory, the Total Self System model is presented as a holistic conceptualization of intrapsychic functioning that addresses the intrapsychic system as a dynamic process that operates as an interconnected part of universal wholeness.