 Know the purpose of psychohistorical and psychobiographical method and become aware of what kinds of inquiry and analysis is entailed in psychohistory and what are not  Understand the causal and coherent whole forms of explanations used to describe psychohistorical methods  Get acquainted with the three areas of psychohistory and the four paradigms suggested by Robert Lifton  Narrate the historical antecedents of Psychobiography and the history of its evolution as an established form of inquiry  Get familiar with all the processes underlying the method of psychobiography  Acknowledge the problems posed by psychohistory as well as it’s remediation and also recognise the limitations and usefulness of psychobiography method

2. Introduction

This module begins with mentioning the definition of Psychohistory and specifying what features entails psychohistorical method and what doesn’t. Following that causal and coherent varieties of explanation are delineated and the areas of psychohistory are outlined. After that Lifton’s four model or paradigms in psychohistory is explained briefly and the problems presented in psychohistory method is declared along with some remediation. Next, the method of psychobiography is defined along with causal and coherent whole explanations. This is followed by its historical antecedents and the chronicle of the evolution of this method. The processes underling the method is also mentioned stepwise and lastly the limitations and usefulness of Psychobiography is narrated. 3. Psychobiographies and Psychohistorical methods

3.1 Psychohistory definition

There has been considerable confusion and disagreements regarding the matters of definition, aim and method of psychohistory. Several scholars and researchers suggest different ideas and connotations to describe this method. For e.g. DeMause (1975) considers psychohistory as the history of the psyche; Kovel (1971) regards it as a concept of culture that involves a system of shared meaning; while Dunn (1974) conceptualizes it as an approach to understand the past through merging of the historical and psychological traditions. Also, the aim of psychohistory PSYCHOLOGY PAPER No. 3: Qualitative Methods MODULE No.27: Psychobiographies and Psychohistorical Methods

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gathers differing views as deMause (1975) states it as discovery of laws while Lifton observes the aim as a new search for human essence. Even the methods advocated by psychohistorians are present in varieties. Where Mazlish (1972) propagates the application of psychoanalytic theory to history, Erikson (1964) though agreeing to this proposition further adds to it the concept of identity as a historical tool; while Binion (1976) asked to focus on the ‘feeling out’ of motives behind the significant actions.

3.2 What is psychohistory and what it is not?

Very little attention has been given by psychohistorians to the problem of defining psychohistory. The simple assumption that some combination of psychology and history comprises psychohistory is not at all satisfactory. Hence, in order to prevent the looseness of this subject matter, it is important to construct a workable definition.

According to Crosby & Crosby (1981), psychohistory is a form of history which explicitly uses the concepts, principles and theories of psychology to enhance our understanding of particular people and events in the past. This definition can be simultaneously considered more inclusive as well as more restrictive than others. It is relatively inclusive in the sense that this definition doesn’t restrict psychohistory to only one or selected few kinds of psychological principles; rather it allows the use of variety of principles, concepts or theories. When the subject of inquiry is a single actor then applying some form of personality theory would be more helpful and if mass movements are the subject, the principles of social psychology seems more relevant. Also, this inclusive definition avoids the tendency to associate psychohistory exclusively with psychoanalytic theory.

Being more inclusive in defining works of psychohistory than others, it also presents some exclusive characteristics as according to this definition, excluded from psychohistory are works wherein psychological concepts, principles and theories are insignificant and play only a minor role. Biographical examples covered under psychohistorial speculations that have only brief psychological references and rarely used psychological terminologies aren’t sufficiently developed enough to be qualified as works of psychohistorical endeavors. In the same way, family history or histories of child- rearing practices cannot be termed psychohistorical unless they make use of psychological principles or concepts.

The workable definition also excludes such works that use historical data for psychological purposes. There are numerous examples where the psychologists have made use of historical data in various ways that are interesting and legitimate but that are not psychohistorical. For example, Phyllis Greenacre’s examination of treason cases was not carried out with the aim of explaining the past but to mainly establish “the fundamental characteristics of the traitor”.

Even Lifton’s work of examining the attempts at adaptation of Hiroshima survivors and Vietnam War veterans to peacetime conditions was implemented with the hope to discover a better means PSYCHOLOGY PAPER No. 3: Qualitative Methods MODULE No.27: Psychobiographies and Psychohistorical Methods

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of helping future generations cope with stressful historical events. Thus, in such cases where the scholar’s interest in a particular historical subject is concerned more with the lessons that it provides to the modern man, then the whole objective of historical understanding may be lost.

Similarly, the studies of decision- making by Suedfeld and his colleagues (1976), McClelland’s (1961) studies of achievement, Davies’ (1962,1969) studies of revolution etc can all be cited as the work of psychological use of history or in other words, they can be connoted as transhistorical psychology.

3.3 Varieties of explanations

Psychohistorians mainly tend to use two types of explanations: Causal and coherent whole (Crosby, 1979; Farrell, 1963; Strout, 1968). Causal explanations can be described as those explanations that seek to account for adult behavior in terms of childhood experiences. These explanations of psychohistory tend to ask such questions as: Why was the person the way he was? Why did the group act the way it did?

On the other hand, Coherent whole explanations, aim to foster a unified whole out of apparently scattered bits of data in the way as it related to the actions of persons or groups. Causal explanations ask such questions as: What was a person like? What was a group like? Etc

3.4 Areas of Psychohistory

According to Lloyd deMause, there are three inter-related areas of psychohistorical study-:

 History of Childhood- In this particular area, the questions looked upon are : How have the children been raised throughout? How has the family been constituted? How & why has it changed over time and the place & value of children in society over time? How & why our views of child abuse and neglect have changed? Why there is still such denial about the reality of child abuse? The reason why so much attention is paid to the childhood is because it is believed that here at this point; much of the groundwork for our future emotional development is created. So, if we want to understand our emotional development in a better manner and how & why it has changed over time, we need to effectively comprehend the history of our childhood.

 Psychobiograhy- Here we seek to understand single historical individuals and their motivations in history. This area mainly involves understanding a person's emotional growth, his/her personal, family, and societal relations, the time in which the person PSYCHOLOGY PAPER No. 3: Qualitative Methods MODULE No.27: Psychobiographies and Psychohistorical Methods

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lives, and how all of these interact to allow the person to have an effect on history. This sort of method cannot be implemented without very detailed personal data; hence it is more likely that the best subject is a recent historical figure. It can be unhesitatingly stated as the most known and visible form of psychohistorical method. One of the drawbacks of this method is that the understanding of historical subjects are solely dependent on the interpretations of the scholars, hence they can unduly represent the subjects in a manner that is more evil or pathological than they might have actually been.

 Group Psychohistory- This type is perhaps the most radical and anxiety provoking form of psychohistorical method. The aim of this endeavor is to study and seek to understand the motivations of large groups in history. Group minds are not separated from the individual members and they are also motivated by members who all broadly share the same feelings and fantasies. There is a common saying that we will do things in groups that we would never dream of doing as individuals. This factor is often realized while making the effort to understand group's underlying feelings and fantasy.

3.5 Lifton’s model of Psychohistory

Robert Lifton identified four models or paradigms of psychohistory which are- ‘Prehistorical’ model, ‘Psychopathological’ model, the ‘Erikson’s Great man in history’ model and the ‘Social psychohistory’ model. Out of these the first two models are Freudian and the remaining two draws further away from his view of history. The two Freudian paradigms labeled as prehistorical and psychopathological have come to represent what psychohistory is for most people and it is precisely because of these two models, especially psychopathological one that people are hostile towards psychohistory. All the four models are discussed briefly hereunder-:

Prehistorical- Lifton’s description of the features of this paradigm can be traced to the work of Freud in his book, Totem and Taboo (1912-1913). In this book, Freud initiates that the origin of the society and religion is rooted in a prehistoric event involving the killing of the oedipal father by the abandoned sons of the ancient troupes. This killing was followed by cannibalism of the father, incest with the mothers, and then guilt over all these three events. Thus, this action resulted in the taboo against incest and marked the beginning of totemic feast to commemorate the occurrence and purification of souls related to the original killing. Freud further claimed that in the course of history, each individual re-enacts symbolically the patricide and guilt which was originally a real historical event. So the main purpose of analyzing history is to come to terms with these inherited prehistorical themes.

The happenings suggested by Freud in several of his books related to pre-historical times are extremely engaging and fascinating, still there is no evidence that any of the events described by Freud ever took place. Also, the real nature of these forms of work is not historical but ahistorical. PSYCHOLOGY PAPER No. 3: Qualitative Methods MODULE No.27: Psychobiographies and Psychohistorical Methods

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His books of the type of Totem and Taboo that deals with prehistorical or historical events are basically works of general cultural interpretation or philosophy of history rather than history in the usual sense.

Psychopathology- It is the works of psychopathology guised as the mask of psychohistory that has done real damage to this field of research. To explain this concept, let us take the example of Freud’s essay on Leonardo which is considered as the starting point of psychohistory. Now Freud clearly stated that the aim of his work has been to explain the inhibitions in Leonardo's sexual life and in his artistic activity and to essentially describe the interrelatedness of sexual and artistic inhibitions and not to deal with the whole of Leonardo's life in its full historical context. In doing so, he although does not label Leonardo as a neurotic, he nevertheless refers to this work as a pathography because while dealing with a historical figure, he is considering only one strand in the life of a complex man from a clinical point of view.

Also, the book on Wilson that was a collaborative work between Freud and Bullitt is equally clinical. It is also necessary here to notify the fact that both the authors for some reasons disliked Wilson. This book attempted to demonstrate the essentially negative, destructive effects of Wilson's personal psychological experience on his public life. Freud and Bullitt in his book were essentially concerned with Wilson’s psychological experience, most precisely the influence of his oedipal relationship with his father on his decision- making ability and the experiences manifested in public life.

However, such piece of work is universally decried as these works persistently contains negative appraisal of the subject. Nothing that Wilson did seem to satisfy Freud and Bullitt. Also, psycopathological model has a built-in bias as it probes for illness rather than health and for weakness rather than strength. Many psychohistorians have rightly rejected this approach claiming that it is actually a kind of personal attack on a historical figure with the jargon of clinical psychopathology used to give the impression of scientific objectivity and insight.

Great man in history- Lifton sincerely recognized the achievements of Erikson’s work and considered it as the third paradigm of psychohistory. Erikson’s work was concerned with the kinds of inner conflicts illuminated by the Freudian tradition and he placed the great man within a specific historical context. Hence the model is known as ‘great man in history’. The nature of Erikson's contribution to psychohistory is developmental and sequential. Erikson is a psychoanalytic ego psychologist, and his conception of the development of human ego throughout the eight stages of the human life cycle has much to offer the psychohistorians. Each of the stages in Erikson’s developmental theory is continuous with the preceding stage/s and they also signify for qualitatively new ego configuration made up by the fusion of past and present. Thus, as the development of the individual proceeds, her/his present is to a great extent culturally determined. Especially the last five of Erikson's eight stages are deeply involved in the historical context in which each human life unfolds and it is these stages that might be the usual domain of PSYCHOLOGY PAPER No. 3: Qualitative Methods MODULE No.27: Psychobiographies and Psychohistorical Methods

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the historian. But these eight stages in total are the domain of the psychohistorian. Methodologically, on the basis of these stages the psychohistorian must view each present moment as the outcome of his subject's life history. Thus, the main challenge of the psychohistorian remains in bringing all of these elements together into one unified structure that connects inner experience and outer reality to each other.

Social psychohistory- This paradigm is basically concerned with explaining group behavior. As utilized in psychobiography, the psychoanalytic concepts also predominates this method. With the implication of psychoanalytic model, the psychohistorians attempt to explain why groups of adults acted the way they did by relating their behavior to common childhood experiences. Freud observed that individuals in crowds are more likely to be impulsive, impatient, gullible and volatile. In fact they are also bound by the libidinal ties to their leaders and are entirely submissive to them. Freud even suggested that the crowds undergo a collective regression to an earlier mental stage when society is ruled by a tyrannical father. Contemporary crowds search for the primal father and through identification; substitute a leader for the father. Hence, unconscious processes, libidinal ties, regression, the importance of parental authority and identification are some of the highlighting features of describing social psychohistory using psychoanalytic principles. In addition to them, several social psychological approaches such as Cogntive- Dissonance theory have also been used to explain group behavior in a psychologically meaningful way.

3.6 Problems posed by psychohistory

Psychohistory is a complex theoretical field where all the methodological problems have not been solved yet. Hence, it evidently gives rise to certain important problems that account for the controversial nature and difficulty in practicing the field.

 The first trouble is the distortion of historical facts through the application of stringent theoretical presupposition that most likely governs our perception of understanding such historical events. Even though the whole point of doing psychohistory is the application of a given psychological theory to an historical event or figure, there always remains a danger that the facts related to these events would be distorted and misrepresented by controlling theoretical presupposition. Thus the only way of managing this problem is that the psychohistorians maintains balance and tact and makes a judicious usage in applying theory to facts. In order to prosper psychohistory as a successful methodological field, the psychohistorians must learn to use theory flexibly and cautiously.  The second difficulty can be considered as a perpetual threat to any psychohistorical field of work, which has to do with the fact that any proposed and validated theory changes with time. It is possible that the theory may be discarded or it may develop as something more structured, but in any case theory change will be inevitable. Thus, it should be an essential point of concern for all the psychohistorians to be constantly aware PSYCHOLOGY PAPER No. 3: Qualitative Methods MODULE No.27: Psychobiographies and Psychohistorical Methods

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of such theoretical changes, otherwise they are liable to such theoretical concepts that are either outdated or drastically altered. Also, an important matter of fact is that once the psychohistorian gets hold of the best theory for his work at that moment, he shouldn’t be obliged to delay his work until something newer or better comes in the academic world. If the theory is adequate and fits the purpose of the study in all correct manners, then the psychohistorian must simply take the risk of future theoretical change.  Another problem of this field that is closely related to the danger of theory controlling fact is that of unjustified reality of psychological explanations. As we know that it is not feasible to examine the truth or falsity of an idea, hence it won’t be incorrect to say that the psychological explanation of historical events or motivation behind the actions of an individual based on such sources of ideas is not completely warranted. But one of the greatest drawbacks in the development of psychohistory is that this obvious fact was completely ignored. Hence, we find enormous amount of studies done in psychohistory where the truth of an idea is discovered in repressed infantile fantasy.  Another main issue in this field is the lack of sufficient materials and facts related to the subject matter due to which there is a tendency on the part of psychohistorians to speculate beyond known facts. There are several points in any psychohistorical study when the psychohistorian lacks required data due to several reasons: the subject is not a living person, there is much less source material available or in some cases the materials related to earlier period cannot be easily verified. Nonetheless, the scholar is still sure that he knows what is going on. Even in the case of recent materials it is very difficult to get a grasp of how the subject might have felt and why. And when the case of any historical figure is taken, an inevitable gap remains between what the pschohistorian can describe as a behavior and what inference he makes out of the affective experience or the quality of self, causing that behavior. At such points, it is very likely that the psychohistorians try to fill the gap with a combination of theory and clinically sensitized experience. But the point of concern at such situations is that how much valid such speculations can be.

3.7 Remediation for the concerns of psychohistory

 Psychohistorians should consider a proper definition of psychohistory that is free from any therapeutic assumptions and validation work of propagating social betterment and they should consistently work within this framework.  Psychohistorians should be able to demonstrate a valid reason for the purpose of investigating the psychohistorical events of the concerned subject. The reason shouldn’t be motivated by any political, economic or clinical agenda.  Psychohistorians must have sufficient materials available with them regarding the subject of investigation so that they can easily carry out a psychohistorical interpretation.

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 Psychohistorians are also supposed to re-examine their use of psychoanalytic theory. Since, psychoanalytic theory emphasizes a lot on causation in history, it has demonstrable weaknesses. But this doesn’t accounts for condemnation of all sorts of psychoanalytic theory. Rather, the real strength of psychoanalytic theory lies in its contribution to present a coherent whole explanation. Psychoanalysis can be seen as a narrative concerned with patterns of personality traits which can be inferred from behavior (Sherwood, 1969).

3.8 Psychobiography definition

Psychobiography is an interior case of psychohistory and by far the most popular form of this methodological field. Earlier psychobiography was assumed of as a method wherein psychoanalytic theory is applied mainly to determine the motivations of creativity of great artists of the time. Psychobiography is a field that analyzes the lives of historically significant individuals through the use of psychological theory and research. The goal of this particular field is to develop a better understanding of some notable individual by applying psychological theories to their biographies in order to further explain the motives behind some of the actions and decisions made by that person.

Causal explanation: The general causal model followed in psychobiography is some variant of psychoanalysis. While applying psychoanalysis, psychohistorians attempt to establish causal links between childhood experience and adult behavior. However, the major source of difficulty in this form of inquiry is the absence of living subject that is considered to be a crucial aspect of any kind of psychoanalytic model. As the subject of inquiry is not present in person the psychohistorians have to rely on the biographical details revealed in autobiographies, biographies, letters, diaries, etc. Such sources are useful enough to provide information about adult characteristics and behavior, but they rarely speak much about childhood. Since, it is impossible to keep a detailed account of the children even by most doting parents, the early lives of most prominent individuals- Adolf Hitler, Richard Nixon, etc. are often shrouded in mystery. Also, the chances are very rare that a complete series of letters and diaries regarding the subject of psychohistorical interpretation are available and even more difficult is the reliable indication that these materials has an affective importance to the particular individual under study. Now, since there is no standardized and reliable way to determine the evidence of affect, psychohistorians have mainly resorted to two questionable devices: substituting generalized clinical studies for the emotional states of the specific subjects and relying on the unconscious as a support in causal explanations.

The psychohistorian’s attempts to establish causal links between childhood events and adult behavior can be more nicely demonstrated with the help of an example. Adolf Hitler is one such historical figure who has been the subject of investigation of many scholars and also one of the popular subjects for psychohistorians. According to Waite, Hitler’s adult behavior seems to fall PSYCHOLOGY PAPER No. 3: Qualitative Methods MODULE No.27: Psychobiographies and Psychohistorical Methods

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into a pattern. Some of his behaviors seem orally aggressive suggesting an oral fixation. Hitler was also interpreted as manifesting anal character traits, such as an obsessive concern about time and a compulsion for cleanliness. It has been assumed by the psychohistorian that Hitler might have had serious disturbance during infant feeding process and because of his anal traits it can be inferred that his mother was very rigorous in toilet training her children.

For a causal explanation to be convincing, the psychohistorian should be able to provide proper evidence as well as sound inference. The psychohistorian should also be able to present a support of their claim that the supposed effect occurred and that the supposed cause/ causes occurred prior to the effect. As a part of general rule, the causal role of an event or series of events can be established by pschohistorian through implying psychological theory, it is essential for the psychohistorian to clearly state the psychological principles and refer as well as cite both relevant theoretical literature and relevant empirical literature.

Coherent whole explanation: Psychobiographical studies involving coherent whole explanations have certain advantages over causal explanation. As the former do not delve into the subject’s childhood, studies using the coherent whole explanation have lesser problem related to scarce evidence. The psychohistorian no more needs to guess for those events for which there are no materials or to speculate about the affective importance of such events.

Advocators of this form of explanation convincingly claim that a psychohistorian does not require explaining personality in as detailed way as done by a psychoanalyst. In fact it would be impossible for a psychohistoran to provide as full a view of their historical subjects as done by the analyst of their patients because the analysts are equipped with better data than the historian and also have better opportunity for fuller, more in-depth reconstructions due to availability of the subjects. The few purposes that the personality theories, like psychoanalysis serve for the psychohistorians are to make them sensitive to a range of evidence, providing them with a structure to classify several personality traits and suggesting possible relationships between the classifications. To accomplish such tasks, the examination of a subject’s childhood is not at all required.

According to Georges, what is necessary in constructing an explanation of a historical character is a search for repetitive patterns; recurring as well as distinctive modes of behavior and identification of contexts in which such behaviors recur. The psychobiographer then should be able to propose a set of constructs that would facilitate in making sense of the subject’s behavior. The hypotheses formed involving the constructs should be specific enough so that they can be refuted if they don’t fulfill the purpose. Lastly, he has also suggested the psychobiographer to consider alternative plausible explanations for the distinctive behavior patterns of the historical subject.

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One of the best known examples of psychobiographical work using coherent whole explanation is the Georges’ biography on Wilson (1956). The theoretical basis of his work was Harold Lasswell’s view that individuals seek power to overcome low estimates of the self. The Georges in their work have very efficiently pieced together several features of Wilson’s life into an intelligible psychological whole. In the work it was demonstrated how Wilson’s love of constitution writing, his desire for strong leadership, his constant need for reassurance, his stubborn refusal to compromise in certain situations and various such instances of expression of power compensated for low self-esteem. It was also mentioned that Wilson’s quest for power sometimes made him flexible and constructive. But on the other hand, when involved in rivalry with a strong, male authority figure then he had a tendency to become self- destructively rigid.

3.9 Historical antecedents of Psychobiography

Many important and identifiable antecedents of psychobiography can be traced back in history. Some of the essential genres of works are mentioned below-:

Biographical literature- It is one of the earliest precursor of psychobiography that was based upon the pioneering works by Plutarch. His focus of study was mainly political and historical figures. However it was much later during the 16th century that the interest for the life and the personality of the artists caught the attention of thinkers and philosophers. Biographic writing was most pervasive during 19th century which was also known as the age of romanticism, as that period had a great intellectual influence on Freud’s conception of creativity and also led to the foundation of modern hermeneutics. In this form of literature, history was reformed and rediscovered and the purpose of which was threefold: to fantasize about the past with romantic inspiration, to create motivating collection of instances for the present and lastly, to know the past in a better manner using scientific methods.

Pathography- It is a medical approach and can be believed as another source of psychobiography. As per Schioldann (2003), pathography is defined as a “historical biography from a medical, psychological and psychiatric viewpoint that analyses a single individual's biological heredity, development, personality, life history and mental and physical pathology, within the socio- cultural context of his/her time, in order to evaluate the impact of these factors upon his/her decision-making, performance and achievements”. The field of pathography is sowed by great thinkers like Plato and Aristotle who emphasized that there is an inherent connection between madness and genius. The phrase ‘pathography’ was even mentioned in Freud’s Leonardo paper that is considered to be the first work of psychobiography and it was first used by German psychiatrist Paul Julius Möbius, who wrote several pathographies, for example about Rousseau, Goethe, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche (Schioldann, 2003).

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Freud’s conception of creativity- It is unquestionably evident from the literary works that Freud was very much in favor of biographical approach. Despite the denial of any philosophical inspirations in his work, one can easily conclude that the purpose of his psychoanalysis was mainly concerned with the role of studying human individuum in an idiographic way. Freud’s inquisitiveness for understanding creativity and the psychology of artists are inherently related to the emergence of psychobiography as a successful methodological field.

Dilthey’s Hermeneutics- Wilhelm Dilthey, the father of modern hermeneutics emphasized the importance of studying the whole individuum’s uniqueness, and he also designated Biography as the tool for this work. According to him, the true work of the biographer is the application of the science of anthropology and psychology to the problem of making intelligible the nature, development and destiny of a life unit. Dilthey considered Biography as an important resource for the further development of true psychology. Dilthey’s work also strongly influenced Gordon Allport, the pioneer of idiographic approach in personality psychology.

3.10 The chronicled development of psychobiographical method

The origin of psychobiography is rooted in the creativity research. This field of writing initially arose from psychoanalytic inquiry of artistic creativity. A lot of psychologist also believed that normal functioning of personality to a large extent is associated with creativity. Thus, by knowing the componential aspects of creativity in general, we are capable of defining the conditions of healthy self functioning.

The birth of psychobiography: Freud’s Leonardo essay- The groundbreaking essay on Leonardo da Vinci in 1910 produced by the father of psychoanalysis to investigate the psychological determinants of the artist’s creativity is considered the first ever work that falls under the label of psychobiography. Freud engaged in this writing with the aim of exploring answers to some questions such as: From where does the poetic material come from through artists? How the writer’s spontaneous knowledge does originates from the depth of their souls? Thus, this essay attempted to clear the mystery surrounding the life of the artist by analyzing his life story through the application of psychoanalytic theories. This form of psychobiography where the author uses psychoanalytic terms and concepts to guess as well as rebuild the significant events of the life of an individual is described as classic psychobiography. Although this essay created a new genre in psychology, it has also faced numerous criticisms.

It has been alleged that Freud constructed his analysis on the basis of single cue related to a happening of the artist’s life event. He also used several psychopathological arguments to validate his conclusions and he was even blamed for excessive identification with the author. However, despite these criticisms, psychologists like Blum think that Freud’s revolutionary ideas and novel approach was only able to come to forefront because of the absence of a stringent theoretical and

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methodological approach at that time. Also his innovative concept of analyzing famous individual’s lives reduces the calamitous effect of naïve mistakes that he might have made in this attempt. Leonardo’s essay by Freud also has more credits to it. It was also considered the cornerstone of art research by several art historians and this effort remained a model for subsequent work to psychoanalytically understand artistic creativity. Furthermore, Freud introduced some essential psychoanalytic themes and concepts in the Leonardo essay that later became extremely important in the development of psychoanalytic theory.

Decline of Classic Psychobiography- Following Freud’s pioneering venture of this form of analysis, psychoanalysts’ use of psychobiography to investigate the personalities of artists became fairly dominant. Meanwhile in the 1950’s some significant variations in maneuvering psychoanalysis in psychobiography had been done with the intention to clarify the scientific status of psychobiography. Some of these modifications are lessening the over-emphasis on childhood of artists by the authors and acknowledging the psychological factors that influences and to some extent creates a bias in the author’s thought process. According to Ernst Kris, biographers generally highlight the childhood of artists when they try to demonstrate the special and outstanding nature of their personality. Also the authors display an inclination to overvalue the children’s accomplishments and search for extraordinary qualities in the child’s early behavioral manifestations. Besides the parents generally attribute those abilities and characteristics in their children that they weren’t able to cultivate in themselves or that they are especially proud of. Hence, altogether these factors rephrase the legends of the talent’s discovery and impact the way biographers elaborate and interpret data obtained from different sources.

In spite of the constructive criticism and methodological clarification presented by several great scholars in psychobiography, in the middle of the 20th century classic psychobiography lost its popularity and a substantial part of its credibility.

The tradition of idiographic personality research- Since the beginning of 1930’s, psychobiography wasn’t exclusively a subject area of psychoanalytic techniques. The pioneering works of G. W. Allport and Henry Murray gave way to the personality research approach known as personology. This trend focused to inquire about the individuals through their life stories. It can be described as a holistic approach in understanding individual’s life and the researchers that time were putting substantial effort to develop and expand this form of inquiry, but still this tradition was relegated to the background in the 1950’s just like classic psychobiography.

Now we shall discuss the contributions of some American psychologists who on the basis of their works contributed to the development of idiographic personality research in studying of lives in the 20th century.

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. One of the leading personality researchers was Gordon Allport who propagated that personal documents and case studies are suitable for explorations of personality and used them in studying lives. The various materials and sources of information that he worked upon were autobiographies, diaries, letters, unstandardized, open questionnaires, oral reports like interviews, and certain literary products. Allport referred to these as first-person documents, but besides these he also used reports obtained from a third person, just as case studies,life stories and biographies. . The American idiographic approach in personality research of 20th century is very much interconnected with famous psychologist Henry Murray. His writing about Herman Melville, the author of Moby Dick was his first psychobiographical work and he remained deeply involved in the topic throughout his entire life. In his book “Explorations in personality” that was published in 1938, he presented several concepts that later became famous as personology. . Beginning from Murray’s circle, Saul Rosenzweig cultivated deep interest in literature, creativity, history and the possibilities of exploring personality’s individual aspects. He worked upon in intergrating his concepts in an approach he termed as ‘idiodynamics’. This approach focused on the dynamics of the life history and studied the combination of the biogenic and cultural settings of the person in the matrix of the individual world of events, with special emphasis on creative process. . Erik Erikson was undoubtedly the most notable psychologist who developed a fully structured, wholesome and effective method of writing psychobiography. After devoting several years in his research he at last came up with the conclusion that psychoanalytic method is essentially a historical method. Thus, he began with his own unique technique of capturing the interaction of individual personality and historical dimensions by analyzing life stories. Erikson used Freud’s basic psychological findings (repression, ambivalence, the importance of infantile experiences) during analysis of the explored person’s texts and also took into consideration the reality that the writer most of the time, emphasizes, ignores, loves or hates things about his/her subject under the influence of unconscious motives. . Following Eriksonian approach in psychobiography, development in this field remained stagnant for several years. However, the revival of psychobiography coincided with the renewal of American psychoanalysis as Self psychology. An influential affect-theory, developed by Tomkins was applied by self psychologists wherein they replaced the instinct-based theory of psychoanalysis with motivational viewpoints. This unique theory integrated psychoanalysis with phenomenology, hermeneutics and existential philosophy and explored the nature of subjectivity.

During the 1980’s and 90’s, narrative turn appeared in psychology and the idiographic personality research assumed a backseat in psychobiographical research.

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The “narrative turn” and the renaissance of psychobiography- Because of the intensification of the critics in the 70’s regarding the idiographic approach, the pretension to study individual lives scientifically returned to personality psychology that was followed by the so-called “narrative turn” in psychology in the 1980’s. The psychoanalytic attempts in psychobiography moved further away from the original Freudian instinct theory and the rigidness of ego-psychology and were enriched with concepts from object relations theories and psychoanalytic self psychology.

The evolvement of the modern psychobiographic approach hasn’t stagnated and contains some further opportunities. The most striking tendency is the shifting of focus of analysis from single cases to comparative explorations. The accumulating results of idiographic research can form a database on which quantitative methods and statistical tests can be applied. Thus, the life history researchers are able to draw statistically meaningful conclusions from them.

3.11 Processes underlying the method of Psychobiogaphy

Elms’ (2007) gave a detailed description of the process of psychobiographical writing which is presented below in a step-wise format-:

1) The process first and foremost begins with the suitable choice of the subject, about whom sufficient materials and data are available with the academician to implement this kind of biographical work. 2) This is followed by the formulation of hypothesis. In this phase, Elms claims that a “genuine mystery” emerges from the life story of the historical subject that can’t be explained with the usual attributional schemes (For example: why on every painting that Salvador Dali made in 1929 there is a lion’s head with open jaws?) 3) Next, the psychoiographer begins with the initial data collection from variety of sources that includes accessible biographies about the chosen person (usually in third-person documents); it can also be autobiographies, memoirs, diaries, letters and creative products (that are in first-person documents). Since the third-person documents are full of interpretations from the point of view of other person and can be distorted by the prejudices of the author, it is cautiously recommended to read them in parallel and have a critical perception about them. Psychobiographers should also stop collecting data after having enough materials because too many narratives can be confusing. 4) After that data evaluation is done, based on which the scholar can revise the tentative hypothesis depending on the theoretical framework (psychoanalysis, personology, narrative theories) that has been employed. 5) Next, the psychobiographer can perform a more focused data collection grounded on some theoretical methodology. The biographer at this stage can apply Alexander’s concept of “primary indicators of psychological saliency” or Schultz’s method to identify prototypical scenes in the life story. PSYCHOLOGY PAPER No. 3: Qualitative Methods MODULE No.27: Psychobiographies and Psychohistorical Methods

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6) Nonetheless, basing the data collected from different sources could result in various contradictions and to prevent them Elms suggests some beneficial methods, such as whenever possible one should lean on primal sources, but if it is necessary to employ secondary ones, the researcher has to clarify the author’s attitudes towards the protagonist. It should also be kept in mind that the genre of psychobiography is an iterative process and a conscientious psychobiographer will more or less engage her/himself in a continuous process of examining preliminary data. 7) Elms explains that on the basis of introductory facts the researcher formulates tentative hypothesis for which he then looks for data that would either justify it or refute it and eventually would narrow or shift the focus of the hypothesis. Now the researcher looks for further evidence (independent from the data that were the basis of tentative hypotheses) that will justify, refute, narrow or modify the assumptions again. 8) Finally, the psychobiographer identifies and determines valid conclusions. 9) This can be probably followed by further iterative studies of the subject done by other researchers.

3.12 Psychobiography: Limits and Usefulness

Limitations

 A major limitation of psychobiogaphical writing underlies its subjective nature and inherent bias nature on the part of the author. Some of these biases can be listed as follows- The actor-observer bias is the tendency to attribute causality to the person rather than the situation A confirmatory bias is the tendency to focus on information that supports one's existing beliefs Sex and cultural biases involve one’s differential beliefs about men and women, and about culture  Another set of criticism of psychobiography arises from the methodological concerns of this field of writing. Certain errors of this technique committed by the authors are mentioned as follows- The critical period fallacy is a tendency to focus on only one period of a person's life Originology is the Freudian tendency to focus on early life experiences Eventism is the tendency to focus on a few key life events Over-pathologize, refers to focusing solely on negative traits of an individual  The number of tools available to analyze the data of psychobiographical research is very limited especially in psychoanalytic psychobiography as this form of psychoanalytic process must do without two essential tools of dynamic psychology: free associations and the analysis of transference.

PSYCHOLOGY PAPER No. 3: Qualitative Methods MODULE No.27: Psychobiographies and Psychohistorical Methods

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Usefulness

 The classical psychobiography propounded by Freud was essentially about analyzing and understanding the determinants of artistic creativity. But the findings and conclusions of Freud’s research brought to forefront not only some important aspects of the creative process, they also led to significant insights into the functioning of the human mind and personality in general.  The research practice involving psychobiography can play an important role in training the psychologists as in their education curriculum there is a great impetus on theoretical training and on the learning of quantitative research and assessment methods.  The experience of several great thinkers and scholars reveal that studying lives can be very beneficial and contribute to the development of the recognition of the self and the other, and its practical applications such as psychobiography is a good medium to nurture future professionals that would help them better understand the meaning of individual lives facilitated by indispensable self-reflection.

4. Summary

 Psychohistory is a form of history which explicitly uses the concepts, principles and theories of psychology to enhance our understanding of particular people and events in the past. However, the complex nature of this intricate method cannot be summed up by this simple definition. There is considerable confusion and disagreements regarding the matters of definition, aim and method of psychohistory and many critics question several works of psychohistory in terms of its validity.  Psychohistorians use two main types of explanations to discern this method: Causal and coherent whole explanations. Causal explanations can be described as those explanations that seek to account for adult behavior in terms of childhood experiences. Coherent whole explanations on the other hand, tries to foster a unified whole out of apparently scattered bits of data in the way as it related to the actions of persons or groups.  Lloyd deMause identified three inter-related areas of psychohistorical study which were, the History of childhood, Psychobiography and Social Psychohistory.  Robert Jay Lifton proposed four model or paradigms of psychohistory, namely Prehistorical, Psychopathological, Great man in history and Social psychohistory. The first two are based on Freudian work and the rest move more towards modern approach.  Psychobiography is the most significant and popular form of psychohistory. In this particular method, the researcher seeks to understand single historical individuals and their motivations in history. This area mainly involves understanding a person's

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emotional growth, their personal, family, and societal relations, the time in which the person lives, and how all of these interact to allow the person to have an effect on history.  Some of the historical antecedents of psychobiography are biographical literature, pathography, Freud’s conception of creativity and Dilthey’s hermeneutics.  Freud’s analysis on Leonardo’s creativity marks the embarking of psychobiography and popularized classic psychobiography. However, due to its theoretical and methodological inadequacy, this paradigm was no longer predominantly used. The decline of classic psychobiography gave way to idiographic personality researchers that resulted from the works of Allport, Murray and Erikson. Lastly, following the criticism of idiographic approach and narrative turn in psychology, we observed a renaissance in the field of psychobiography.

PSYCHOLOGY PAPER No. 3: Qualitative Methods MODULE No.27: Psychobiographies and Psychohistorical Methods