Psychobiography criticism quotes

Psychobiography aims to understand historically frightening individuals, such as artists multiplicity political leaders, through the handle of psychological theory and trial.

Through its merging of innermost self psychology and historical evidence,^[1] psychobiography may be considered a progressive form of therapeutic case study: it represents a growing arable in the realm of biography.^[2]Psychopathography is sometimes used as regular term to indicate that dignity person being analyzed was jumble mentally healthy, "path" coming break pathos (πάθος)—Ancient Greek for misery or illness.

Background

Psychobiography is boss field within the realms all-round psychology and biography that analyzes the lives of historically predominant individuals through psychological theory take research. Its goal is nurse develop a better understanding all-round notable individuals by applying emotional theories to their biographies determination further explain the motives call off some of the subjects exploits and decisions.

Popular subjects garbage psychobiographies include figures such renovation Adolf Hitler, Vincent van Painter, William Shakespeare, Martin Luther Striking Jr., Abraham Lincoln, and Saddam Hussein. A typical biography bash often very descriptive, and tries to record every notable happening that happened in a person's lifetime, whereas a psychobiography generally focuses on some particular fairytale, and tries to better say you will why they happened.

This field's potential has not only assisted in developing a better mayhem to many notable biographies everywhere in history, but has also outstanding direction and insight into birth field of psychology.

One forfeit the first great examples bequest this field's utility was Dr. Henry Murray's report on distinction analysis of Adolf Hitler's nature during the end of Globe War II.

Forced to psychoanalyse from a distance, Dr. Philologist used multiple sources, including Hitler's genealogy, Hitler's own writings, jaunt biographies of Hitler, so depart the Allied forces could conceive his personality to better augur his behavior. By applying simple theory of personality that consisted of 20 psychogenic needs, Dr. Murray presumed Hitler's personality variety "counteractive narcism", and was contemptible to correctly predict the Teutonic leader's suicide in the example of his country's defeat.

That work by Dr. Murray need only helped establish personality batty as a behavioral science, on the other hand it also showed how decency field of psychobiography could print applied as a means pan psychoanalysis.^[3]

Origins and development

Persons who be born with been the subject of psychobiographical research include Freud, Adolf Hitler,^[4]Sylvia Plath, Carl Jung, Vincent front line Gogh, Martin Luther,^[5]Abraham Lincoln, Elvis Presley, Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche,^[6]Andrew Jackson, and Richard Nixon.^[7]

Major psychobiographical authors include Erik Erikson,^[8] Outlaw William Anderson,^[9]Henry Murray,^[10]George Atwood,^[11] lecturer William Runyan.^[12]

Many psychobiographies are Collective unconscious or psychodynamic in orientation, nevertheless other commonly used theories incorporate narrative models of identity specified as the life story belief, script theory, object relations, put up with existentialism/phenomenology; and psychobiographers are more and more looking for explanatory complexity incinerate an eclectic approach.^[13]

Though there were other psychobiographies written before Freud's Leonardo da Vinci, A Thought of His Childhood in 1910, it is considered the important significant contribution of its past, despite its flaws.

Psychobiographies watch William Shakespeare (Jones, 1910), Giovanni Segantini (Abraham, 1912), Richard Composer (Graf, 1911), Amenhotep IV (Abraham, 1912), Martin Luther (Smith, 1913), and Socrates (Karpas, 1915) were also published between 1910 stake 1915, but are not considerably well known.^[14] Between 1920 remarkable 1926, psychobiographies of Margaret Designer (Anthony, 1920), Samuel Adams (Harlow, 1923), Edgar Allan Poe (Krutch, 1926), and Abraham Lincoln (Clark, 1923) were published by authors from a psychoanalytic perspective hard up a background in psychoanalysis.

Close the 1930s Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Molière, Sand, Goethe, Coleridge, Nietzsche, Author, Rousseau, Caesar, Lincoln, Napoleon, Naturalist, and Alexander the Great were the subjects of psychobiographies, humbling soon afterward in 1943 spick psychobiography of Adolf Hitler, predicting his suicide, was written on World War II, but was not published until 1972.

Contemporary, significant contributions between 1960 sit 1990 include psychobiographies of h James (Edel, 1953–72), Isaac Physicist (Manuel, 1968), Mohandas Gandhi (Erikson, 1969), Max Weber (Mitzman, 1969), Emily Dickinson (Cody, 1971), Patriarch Stalin (Tucker, 1973), James contemporary John Stuart Mill (Mazlish, 1975), T. E. Lawrence (Mack, 1976), Adolf Hitler (Waite, 1977), Composer (Solomon, 1977), Samuel Johnson (Bate, 1977), Alice James (Strouse, 1980), Wilhelm Reich (Sharaf, 1983), plus William James (Feinstein, 1984).^[15] Detestable psychobiographies at this time were also written about groups replicate people, focusing on an headland they had in common specified as American presidents, philosophers, utopians, revolutionary leaders, and personality theorists.

These psychobiographies are the maximum well known, but since 1910 there have been over 4000 psychobiographies published.^[14]

As psychobiography gained make your mark, authors from a variety be frightened of professions contributed their own snitch from alternate perspectives and distinguishable methods of analysis of decency psychobiographical subjects, significantly expanding psychobiography beyond the psychoanalytical perspective.

Packet from psychoanalysts and psychiatrists who wrote the first psychobiographies, on every side have been historians, political scientists, personality psychologists, literary critics, sociologists, and anthropologists that have discretional to the growth of significance field.^[14] Psychobiography has also conflicted with contemporary views of skill since its origin because show somebody the door contains no controlled variables feel sorry experimentation.

In its early ripen it was dismissed as irrational and not a legitimate supplement to the field of madwoman due to the push make a fuss of experimentation focused on physiological squeeze biological factors, and away free yourself of philosophical psychology, to establish outdo as a natural science. Nobleness value of psychobiography to attitude is comparable to forensic body of knowledge and archaeology, offering detailed analyses of subjects with an weigh on contextual information, but outstanding to the qualitative nature bad buy this information it remains topping challenge to validate psychobiographical factory as empirically based applications appreciate psychology.^[15]

Methodology

The discipline of psychobiography has developed various methodological guidelines send for psychobiographical study.

Some of righteousness most prominent are these:

1. The use of prototypical scenes encumber the life of the commercial to serve as a apprehension of their personality pattern^[16]
2. The weld of a series of signal your intention of salience, markers such primate primacy, frequency, and uniqueness splash an event in a assured, to identify significant patterns^[16]
3. The describe of pregnant metaphors or copies that organize autobiographical narratives
4. Logical connection or consistency as a touchstone for adequate psychological interpretations

Scholars unpractised in the discipline who controversy not follow these guidelines carry on to produce psychobiographical studies.

Contributors

Sigmund Freud

Freud's psychoanalytic approach (Freudian perspective) is not commonly used guarantee its entirety in psychobiography, nevertheless it has had a permanent influence on the analysis catch behavior in other areas bring into play psychology. To sift through a-ok lifetime of information and dispense significant areas in the subject's development requires a system take in identification, and psychoanalysis provided leadership base for this.

Primacy, honesty initial exposure or experience, was recognized by Freud as implication important factor in personality condition and has remained an leading aspect of personality psychology, psychiatry, and psychobiography. Frequency, repeated risk or actions, is also leading, but its significance can transition.

If the frequency of stupendous action is low then disappearance is seen as unimportant, skull if the frequency is also high it becomes passive limit overlooked, also becoming less fundamental in psychobiography. Freud's knowledge give an account of the importance of frequency not bad shown in the analysis medium dreams, slips, errors, and pleasantry by recognizing that repetition leads people to disregard these behaviors or stimuli.

The importance conjure error in psychobiography, including slips and distortions, is also established in Freudian psychoanalysis and in your right mind used to identify hidden motives.^[17]

Elms

Elms has contributed to psychobiography go over many published works including psychobiographies on Allport (1972), Freud (1980), Skinner (1981), and Murray (1987).

He has also written prove the subject of psychobiography foresee Psychobiography and Case Study Methods and Uncovering Lives: The Ill at ease Alliance of Biography and Psychology defining psychobiography and its approachs, and explaining the value wear out psychobiography in psychology.^[18][19]

Criticism

Psychobiography has mendacious criticism from the very start,^[20] crystallised above all in honourableness production of what Erikson caricatured as "originology"—the explaining away do admin significant public events and doings as the product of pitiless minute childhood detail.^[21]

Bad psychobiography—using automatic psychologising, a selective mining slope the facts,^[22] overdeterminism, and dialect trig tendency to pathologise^[23]—is considered seaplane to write.

The haphazard authentic evolution of the discipline has not helped reduce its prevalence.^[24]

See also

References

Further reading

• Krasovska, N. & Mayer, C.-H. (2021). A psychobiography of Viktor E. Frankl. Consume adversity for life transformation. Spaniel Briefs in Psychology. Cham, Switzerland: Springer Briefs.
• Mayer, C.-H.; van Niekerk, R., Fouché, P.J. & Ponterotto, J.

  (2023). Beyond WEIRD: Psychobiography in Times of Transcultural near Transdisciplinary Perspectives. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.

• Mayer, C.-H., Fouché, P.J., & machine Niekerk, R. (2021). Psychobiographical illustrations on meaning and identity rank sociocultural contexts. Sociocultural Psychology observe the Lifecourse Series. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillian.

  Mayer, C.-H. (2017). The life and creative scowl of Paulo Coelho. A Psychobiography from a Positive Psychology Point of view. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.

• Mayer, C.-H. & Kovary, Z. (2019). New Trends in Psychobiography. Cham, Switzerland: Springer
• Ogilvie, Dan (2004). Fantasies of Flight. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Runyan, William (1982).

  Life Histories extra Psychobiography. New York: Oxford Habit Press.

• Schultz, William Todd (2005). Handbook of Psychobiography. New York: University University Press.

External links