A Review of Chinese Taoist Theories of Personality

Taoists hold that people can be divided into three kinds: the ingenuous, lost and highly cultivated. They are quite different in cognition, will, motivation and behavior. “Tao” is the primary driving force for their development of personality. In addition, cognition and the environment can also exert influence on it. There exist some contradictions in the Taoist theories concerning the development of personality. In spite of that, these theories have bright future and it is feasible to apply it to the psychological remedy.