Clio’s Psyche Understanding the "Why" of Culture, Current Events, History, and Society

Volume 10 Number 2 September 2003

The Making and Makers of Emotional Life of Nations Psychohistory and Symposium Psychological Society Paul H. Elovitz Responding to deMause’s Ramapo College and the Psychohistory Forum Examination of the This article discusses the Makers and Mak- Emotional Life of Nations ing of Psychohistory research project and the book on the subject, and aims to encourage practitioners Andrew Brink to join in the process of providing data on the his- Psychohistory Forum Research Associate tory of psychohistory. It is important to document It is very difficult to be a pathbreaker and and analyze the history of this exciting field. The pacesetter, even if you clearly explain the expected major result of the project will be the book, Pio- destination. Lloyd deMause has long known the neers of Insight: The Making and Makers of a Psy- limited value of historical writing utilizing only chological Society. In the spring of 2004 I have a commonsense theories of individual and group mo- sabbatical semester to make considerable progress tivation for the cataclysm of war and social change (Continued on page 55) in general. Historians may record facts, narrate IN THIS ISSUE Emotional Life of Nations Symposium The Making and Makers of Psychohistory and Psychological Society...... 33 Responding to deMause’s Examination of the Paul H. Elovitz Emotional Life of Nations...... 33 Psychobiography of Brazil's "Son": Lula da Silva ...... 58 Andrew Brink Book Review Ted Goertzel Editor’s Introduction ...... 35 Senator Byrd: From Klansman to Senate Patrician ..... 61 Paul H. Elovitz H. John Rogers So Wrong Yet Right ...... 36 Shooting, Rescuing, Mythologizing Private Lynch..... 64 C. Fred Alford Dan Dervin Empirical Metahistory? ...... 37 Psychoanalyzing Israel and the Peace Process...... 65 Joseph Dowling Book Review by Neil Wilson A Hedgehog’s Opus Reviewed by a Fox...... 39 Muhammad and the Islamic Community ...... 66 Paul H. Elovitz Book Review by Jay Y. Gonen Wanted: A Book with Feeling...... 42 Response to Kobrin’s References to Spanish History . 69 David Felix J. Lee Shneidman Modifying deMause...... 45 Kobrin Replies to Shneidman...... 70 Peter Petschauer Psychoanalytic Explorations of the Other Efforts of a Daring Innovator ...... 47 as Rationalization of Vengeance ...... 71 Leon Rappoport David Lotto The Emotions of Lloyd deMause ...... 48 Kobrin Replies to Lotto...... 72 J. Lee Shneidman Editorial Board Appointment: James W. Anderson .... 72 DeMause’s Psychology Is at Odds With History ...... 50 Lawrence A. Tritle Call for Papers, December 2003: My Reply to the Reviewers ...... 52 “America as an Imperial Power?” ...... 73 Lloyd deMause Bulletin Board ...... 74 Page 34 Clio’s Psyche September 2003 events, and supply causation, but they seldom sat- of most informed and reflective people. isfy our hunger for reasons why events occur as Their unpleasant messages could not be they do and the possibility of avoiding similar held back, nor can deMause’s. But it can be de- events. Freud opened up new vistas in the theories layed, with debate retarded by failure to communi- of individual and social motivation that have in- cate exactly what deMause is saying. His demands duced much speculation, but there has been little work on unconscious motivation in history as sus- on the reader are much in excess of Tawney’s, tained, thorough, and convincing as deMause’s. Mills’, or Ellul’s, who worked within an estab- His latest book is The Emotional Life of Nations lished framework of Judeo-Christian social con- (New York and London: Karnac, 2002, ISBN cern. DeMause also works within that framework 1892746980, i-ix, 454 pages, $45.00). but with the addition of hard research findings about traumatic childrearing that render hypocriti- I write “convincing,” realizing that only a cal our moralizing. We cannot go on moralizing handful of scholars and writers, with very few pro- about the stupidity and destructiveness of war, or fessional historians among them, actually assent to any manipulations of power, without knowing that deMause’s theories and their scholarly demonstra- there is a developmental route to their necessity, tions. Those who do, however, are usually broadly however irrational and wasteful the results. De- based with training in the social sciences and, espe- Mause offers a science of motivations unlike any cially, in the psychodynamic theories of Freud and other before, and it is urgent that we give his ideas his followers. One might well ask, as Freud has the fullest possible hearing. recently been “cut down to size,” and much revi- sionist theory seems incomplete and sometimes Andrew Brink, PhD, is a literary scholar, incoherent, how can we have a workable theory of something as complicated as history? This is the problem that The Emotional Life Clio’s Psyche of Nations sets out to solve and, as some of its Vol. 10 No. 2 September 2003 readers agree (with certain caveats), brilliantly ac- complishes. Nevertheless, for it to have standing ISSN 1080-2622 among students of individual and group destruc- Published Quarterly by The Psychohistory Forum tiveness and in the debates among historians of 627 Dakota Trail, Franklin Lakes, NJ 07417 political struggles and wars, it needs to be more Telephone: (201) 891-7486 e-mail: [email protected] available. Normally, scholarship as mature and accomplished as deMause’s would find a leading Editor: Paul H. Elovitz, PhD Associate Editor: Bob Lentz university press as publisher or, if not, a commer- cial press with social conscience to take it on. But Editorial Board this has not happened, as it did not with his earlier C. Fred Alford, PhD University of Maryland • James books. Will a promised sequel, specifically on why W. Anderson, PhD Northwestern University • David nations go to war, fare any better? Beisel, PhD RCC-SUNY • Rudolph Binion, PhD After all, most original thinkers eventually Brandeis University • Andrew Brink, PhD Formerly of McMaster University and The University of break through into awareness via their publishers, Toronto • Ralph Colp, MD Columbia University • much though their ideas may be resisted or even Joseph Dowling, PhD Lehigh University • Glen denounced. Protestants didn’t like it when R.H. Jeansonne, PhD University of Wisconsin • Peter Tawney asserted in Religion and the Rise of Capi- Loewenberg, PhD UCLA • Peter Petschauer, PhD talism (1926) that modern capitalism’s individual- Appalachian State University • Leon Rappoport, istic aggressive form is only explicable within the PhD Kansas State University history of Protestantism. People in the so-called Subscription Rate: liberal democracies were not pleased when they Free to members of the Psychohistory Forum learned from C. Wright Mill’s Power Elite (1956) $25 yearly to non-members about how manipulations of power actually work. $40 yearly to institutions (Both add $10 outside U.S.A. & Canada) Nor did we like to learn from Jacques Ellul’s The Technological Society (1964) the extent to which Single Issue Price: $12 traditional religious and secular values have been We welcome articles of psychohistorical interest negated by rampant technology. Yet these sober- that are 500 - 1500 words. ing books have worked their way into the thinking Copyright © 2003 The Psychohistory Forum September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 35 historian of his Dutch and Huguenot ancestors, pressed bewilderment as to why historians in gen- and psychohistorian, who taught at McMaster eral were not more accepting of deMause’s work, I University in Hamilton, Ontario, from 1961 to decided to ask some additional historians each of 1988, and from 1988 to 1993 directed the whom had published at least one book of psycho- Humanities and Psychoanalytic Thought Pro- history. The idea was that only psychohistorical gramme at Trinity College at the University of scholars, or those quite open to the field, would be Toronto before deciding to devote full time to part of the symposium. Professors Lee Shneidman research and writing. He served as a Trustee of (Adelphi) and David Felix (CUNY), both of whom the Holland Society of New York and is a I saw at the Forum’s Biography and Autobiogra- Founding Psychohistory Forum Research phy Research Group, readily accepted the assign- Associate and Member of the Editorial Board of ment, as did Professor Lawrence Tritle (Loyola Clio’s Psyche. See “The Creativity of Andrew Marymount University in Los Angeles). In the end, Brink” for his Featured Scholar Interview what emerged were extremely divergent comments (September 1999 issue, Vol. 6 No. 2:75-81). From by six historians, one literary scholar, one political 1979 to 1988 he was an editor of the papers of scientist, and one psychologist. As always, the Lord Bertrand Russell and subsequently published views expressed represent those of the authors and Bertrand Russell: The Psychobiography of a not of Clio’s Psyche. Moralist (1989). His other books include Loss and Because we do not usually have symposia Symbolic Repair: A Study of Some English Poets on psychohistorical books, I think it a good idea to (1977), Creativity as Repair: Bipolarity and Its remind the reader of Lloyd deMause’s contribu- Closure (1982), Obsession and Culture: A Study of tions to psychohistory. They are impressive, inno- Sexual Obsession in Modern Fiction (1996), and vative, numerous, varied, and well-known. He is The Creative Matrix: Anxiety and the Origin of one of the most widely known of the colleagues Creativity (2000). This year he published Invading who have devoted their scholarly careers to the Paradise: The First and Second Esopus Wars, field and he has had far more institutional impact 1659 and 1663. Professor Brink may be reached than anyone else. He founded the Psychohistory at .  Press, Creative Roots Publishing, the Journal of Psychohistory (initially named the History of Childhood Quarterly), the Institute for Psychohis- Editor’s Introduction tory, and the International Psychohistorical Asso- Paul H. Elovitz ciation (IPA -- of which he has twice been presi- dent). He is a pioneer of online psychohistory. As In early January, Andrew Brink, a founding Director of the Institute for Psychohistory, IPA member of the Forum and of the Editorial Board of President, Editor of the Journal, editor (and author) Clio’s Psyche, contacted me, requesting that of The History of Childhood (1974) and (with Clio’s Psyche do a symposium on Lloyd de- Henry Ebel) Jimmy Carter and American Fantasy Mause’s The Emotional Life of Nations which had (1977), deMause has encouraged the work of oth- been reviewed favorably in our December 2002 ers and often published it. He is the sole author of issue by Howard Stein (“Exploring the Emotional Foundations of Psychohistory (1982) and of Life of Nations,” Vol. 9 No. 3:150-152). I asked Reagan’s America (1984). His work in the early several Editorial Board members and the majority 1970s on childhood was and remains pathbreaking, of their responses were positive. David Beisel sug- inspiring many psychohistorians to integrate the gested that we publish the symposium no earlier history of childhood into their work. His subse- than June and preferably in September, so authors quent probing of historical group fantasies has would have enough time to carefully write a thou- been less widely accepted within the academic and sand words, or more if they should so desire. We psychoanalytic communities. In the IPA and else- decided that we would ask, with a personal request where, he is admired for his staunch devotion to from me, each of the members of our Editorial the rights of children and the struggle against war. Board. Fred Alford (Maryland), Andrew Brink  (McMaster, Toronto), Joseph Dowling (Leigh), Peter Petschauer (Appalachian State), and Leon Rappoport (Kansas State) responded with com- CFP: “America as an Imperial Power?” ments on the book. Because Professor Brink ex- December 2003. See page 73. Page 36 Clio’s Psyche September 2003

How Could a Famous Author that “since England led the rest of Europe in end- ing swaddling and wet nursing, it is no accident Get so Much Wrong and that soon after it also led the world in science, po- Still Be Right? litical democracy, and industrialization” (p. 245). England also led the world in colonization and im- C. Fred Alford perialism during this same period. University of Maryland It is deMause’s thesis that over the centu- Few surprises are in store in this book for ries childrearing has become more humane, and anyone familiar with the work of Lloyd deMause, with it the behavior of nations, beginning in the which likely includes most readers of Clio’s Psy- modern world with England and America. Ac- che. That’s both good and bad. His evocation of knowledging that the 20th century was the bloodi- the horrors of childhood has lost none of its power. est century in world history, deMause responds What deMause said over three decades ago in The that the percentage of humans killed by violence History of Childhood, his great work, still stands: has declined steadily over the last several thousand “The history of childhood is a nightmare from years (pp. 220-221). Perhaps, though one might as which we have only recently begun to awaken.” well argue, as Norbert Elias does in The Civilizing Process (1978), that what has changed is the qual- But what is one to think about claims such ity of violence, so that it has become more rational as the following? “The real reason” Bush senior and bureaucratic, the property of states rather than attacked Iraq was to “cure ourselves of our depres- individuals, such as parents. It is this transforma- sion and flashbacks of punitive mommies by in- tion that accounts for the change in the quality of flicting the punishment we felt we deserved as violence: less frequent, but more intense, organ- children” (The Emotional Life of Nations, p. 30). ized, and destructive when it occurs. Destructive One wants to say there are lots of reasons, complex isn’t just measured by the percentage of the popu- reasons, latent reasons, subtle reasons, and mani- lation killed, but who and how and where and why. fold reasons, but no “real reasons.” At least not for such a complex event as a war. Like deMause, Elias understands that even “civilized” violence retains the quality of a blood Some authors delight us with their subtlety. ritual, a perverse purifying process. Consider Elias’ Donald Winnicott comes to mind. Other authors example of the carving of meat. Once the carving beat us over the head with a sledgehammer. After of the animal was spectacle, performed to honor finishing deMause’s book, one wants to say, guests and gods. Gradually, however, the display “About every particular thing he said I find some- is felt to be distasteful, an insult to civilized sensi- thing to disagree, but the cumulative effect is pow- bilities. Carving does not disappear, however. erful and persuasive.” The question is whether this People still eat meat. Rather, the distasteful is re- cumulative effect is to be welcomed or resisted. moved to the realm of experts. Let me give a little example, which is familiar to me from my own work, and then a big example, in It will be seen again and again how charac- order to illustrate the dilemma. teristic of the whole process of civilization is this movement of segregation, the hiding “behind the Drawing on the well-known work of Sam- scenes” of what has become distasteful. The curve uel Oliner and Pearl Oliner, The Altruistic Person- running from the carving of a large part of the ani- ality: Rescuers of Jews in Nazi Europe (1988), de- mal or even the whole animal at table, through the Mause writes that rescuers’ parents “invariably” advance in the threshold of repugnance at the sight used reason rather than violence in correcting their of dead animals, to the removal of carving to spe- children. In fact, if one looks at the appendix of cialized enclaves behind the scenes, is a typical The Altruistic Personality, one finds that 32 per- civilization curve (Elias, The Civilizing Process, p. cent of rescuers, compared to 39 percent of non- 99). Here it is good to recall that the carving of the rescuers, received physical punishment as children. animal at the table was not just an act of hospital- It is on tenuous distinctions like these that vast ity, but an act of sacrifice, replayed every time we theories rest, and not just deMause’s. I’ve seen carve a turkey or roast for our family and friends. Oliner and Oliner cited in at least a dozen different works in similar contexts. If Elias is right, then deMause is not just exaggerating, but wrong. Less physically violent The big example, by which I mean an ex- childrearing is not associated with a less violent ample with big implications, is deMause’s claim society, but only with one in which violence is ra- September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 37 tionalized, and so become the realm of experts and leader is almost always the craziest member of the bureaucrats. In other words, violence is no longer small group, and usually the most articulate para- reproduced in the home, but in the larger institu- noid. DeMause’s brief reference to Miller and tions of society. But reproduced it is, as there is Bion in the notes is not an indication that he has something in men and women that loves violence, really integrated their ideas into his work. and not just because they want to punish others as The strength of deMause’s work is also its mommy and daddy punished them. The Second weakness. Not just in the exaggerations and ten- Gulf War, before which many of us sit amazed at dentiousness, which are easy enough to spot, but in the awesome power and precision of our weapons, his failure to engage other minds working along is exemplary. Fewer are killed, but this is not the related lines. The result is a powerful idea lacking only measure of the satisfaction of aggression. the subtlety and complexity that this engagement DeMause’s exaggerations, his tendency to could provide. One appreciates and admires de- avoid qualifiers and modifiers, are not the problem. Mause for restating this powerful idea for over 30 The reader sees through that easily enough. More years. Disciplines are slow to respond, and dogged problematic is deMause’s intentional ignorance of persistence is required. One wishes, however, that multiple causality, the belief that complex events deMause had drawn on the theoretical work of oth- have many causes working at several levels. Still, ers during this time in order to render his own the- one might argue that this neglect, too, is rhetoric, ory more complex, less one-dimensional. One- and, as such, has its place. How else would he per- dimensional isn’t always bad. The nightmare of suade us to take a troubling thesis seriously but to childhood is a dimension of experience that schol- reiterate it relentlessly? Most troublesome is de- ars and experts have worked hard to ignore. But Mause’s failure to engage with a variety of authors because the application of this idea to the life of who might strengthen his argument while making individuals, to say nothing of the life of nations, is it more subtle. no simple matter, other dimensions would be wel- Elias is one. Another is Christopher Lasch, come. who portrays subtleties of violence that might lead C. Fred Alford, PhD, is Professor of to less optimistic conclusions: not that childrearing Government and Distinguished Scholar-Teacher at has become less violent, but that its violence has the University of Maryland in College Park, where itself changed, taking on the qualities of abandon- he has taught since 1979. Author of a dozen books ment and engulfment at the same time, leading to on moral psychology, his latest is Levinas, the what Lasch calls “the culture of narcissism.” Such Frankfurt School, and Psychoanalysis. He is a culture is not necessarily more warlike, but it is currently finishing a manuscript on freedom and not a very attractive place to live, either. To be may be reached at .  sure, deMause recognizes the singular pathological power of abandonment when it is coupled with en- gulfment (the book is filled with fascinating repro- Empirical Metahistory? ductions of cartoons, engravings, and the like, many of them illustrating this combination), but it Joseph Dowling does not lead deMause to a more subtle under- Lehigh University standing of violence. On the contrary, the book It is an intimidating task to evaluate a work ends with several chapters designed to demonstrate like The Emotional Life of Nations, which ranges that so-called primitive societies exhibit almost so widely over so many fields and exhibits such a none of the physical closeness between parents and plethora of data. Lloyd deMause even quotes arti- children that anthropologists idealize. Debunking cles from my daughter’s analyst! As the author has its place, but it is no substitute for the full himself states in his Preface, “Much of this book is range of scholarship. upsetting and difficult to believe, despite the exten- I could go on to mention the way in which sive historical, anthropological, clinical, and neuro- Alice Miller’s work might also provide deMause logical evidence I will present” (p. vii). It is, there- with a more subtle understanding of the violence of fore, almost impossible to deal with all the conclu- childhood, just as the work of the group psycho- sions and assertions in each chapter. Take, for ex- analyst Wilfred Bion might provide deMause with ample, the sections in Chapter 4, which deal with a more subtle understanding of the relationship fetal memory. DeMause overwhelms the reader between leaders and followers. For Bion, the with research data, which supports, or at least Page 38 Clio’s Psyche September 2003 seems to support, his assertion that neurological with such concepts as the poisonous placenta. evidence undergirds his theory of social change. It Let me give some random thoughts on his- is difficult to argue with this claim without going torical assertions. It is true that the Germans through the same rigorous reading to which the cheered Hitler at the start of WWII (p. 155), but author subjected himself. Personally, I have tried this was the result of a string of diplomatic suc- to keep up with the continuing debate among and cesses and, therefore, euphoria about Germany’s between neurobiologists, and my sense is that there rise to pre-eminence politically and militarily. seems to be less unanimity in that field than de- During the Czech crisis, Hitler pulled out all the Mause suggests. But, again, he produces data, propaganda stops (parades, etc.), but was unable to which has, at least, to be taken at face value. It is muster very much public support to go to war in unclear if one can then make the leap from clinical 1938. There is evidence that Munich was not what and neurological research to deMause’s central he wanted, and some historians label it as a defeat claim as stated below: for Hitler. By the time we get to September 1, However disguised, the Poisonous 1939, an entirely new psychological stage was set. Placenta and the Suffering Fetus are the There had even been a plot by German generals to most important images of the fetal drama, assassinate Hitler if he went to war at that time and the restaging of their violent encounter (1938). The question which bothers me is the one I is a central religious and political task of will keep coming back to: Are the Germans people society. I suggest that this battle with the (and that is another problem), acting out childhood persecuting placental beast constitutes the traumas, or is the messianic leader capable at a cer- earliest source of war and social violence, tain historical junction of arousing childhood traumas that must be restaged because of the memories? neurobiological imperatives of early brain Although I do agree with deMause on the development (p 76). emergence of different psychoclasses, I have the Perhaps this is so, although the passage same difficulty defining psychoclass that many contains theoretical assumptions which make me, other historians have defining economic class. As as a historian, a bit skeptical. Lloyd deMause goes deMause admits, there exist various psychoclasses on to maintain that this restaging “is thus a homeo- at any one historical period. I found his section on static mechanism of the brain, achieved by groups the Reformation particularly persuasive, but I was through wars, economic domination and social vio- confused by the section on German childrearing, lence” (p. 79). To deMause, once the concept is where he states that the German workers held to grasped, the “rationalizations of history become democratic ideals, a higher level of psychoclass (p. transparent” (p. 79). His example, the German de- 183), yet on the next page the evidence shows that sire for revenge after WWI for the day of shame “autobiographies of late nineteenth-century work- (the Versailles Treaty), is really a reference to the ing-class childhoods found the German ones far real source, namely the abuse that German children more brutal and unloving…” (p. 184). Since these suffered from their parents, particularly the father. children would be adults during the Hitler regime, A strange thought occurs to me at this point: What one would expect them to be less democratically if Germany had won the war? Would there still inclined than the earlier generation. I also find the have been a “day of shame”? Or, to put it another assertion that the German people “knew deep down way: Didn’t the historical event awaken “the they were committing suicide” to be problematic shame?” Is this an over-determined outcome? Or, (p. 155). How does one document that? to put it even another way, did the event trigger, or On a subject closer to my heart and reading cause, the emotions rather than the emotions trig- is the question of the Japanese attack on Pearl Har- gering the event? bor. DeMause has swallowed whole the I suppose I am entering the old problem of “revisionist” theory that FDR deliberately lured the the chicken and the egg, and what I write now may Japanese into attacking. As I recollect, this version be considered nit-picking, but that is a tendency of has been around since Charles Callan Tansill wrote historians. Later I will raise more theoretical cave- Back Door to War: The Roosevelt Foreign Policy, ats, which I hope will be resolved in this sympo- 1933-1941 (1952). Given the limits of space and sium. I admit that, as deMause himself comments, time, it is impossible to recapitulate the extensive “Much of this book is upsetting and difficult to scholarship devoted to this topic. Suffice it to say believe” (p. vii), and I find myself having difficulty that Joseph Persico’s recent work, Roosevelt’s Se- September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 39 cret War (2001), ably summarizes recent revision- achievements. How did their childrearing lead ist theories and just as ably refutes them, including them to Calvinism, and how did that interact with the work of Robert Stinnett, on which deMause the social base which was the family? relies. There is no doubt FDR was intent on get- A further problem I have with the overall ting into the war against Germany, but, as he said thesis is the question of what constitutes a group to Churchill, a fight with Japan would be “the (or a nation). I was once burned by this problem wrong war in the wrong ocean at the wrong time.” when I served on a panel with Graham Gibbard They agreed that the first priority was the defeat of (Yale University), who wrote Analysis of Groups Hitler. (1981) with John Hartman (University of Michi- FDR was dealing with an American public gan). Gibbard found that my attempt to apply small rather strongly opposed to going to war and he saw group theory to the millennialist movements of his job as leading them into an awareness of the pre-Civil War America failed to establish the danger posed by Hitler. Even after Pearl Harbor, boundaries of the groups. the American public would have opted for America To end on a positive note, I think the only being at war with Japan, while Britain was at “debate” between Greenfield and Lucas would war with Germany and Japan. What a mess that have been enhanced by the insights from The Emo- would have been for Churchill! On the other hand, tional Life of Nations. There are many valuable it should also be borne in mind that Hitler didn’t ideas contained therein. have to declare war on the United States, since the pact with Japan called for mutual assistance in case Joseph A. Dowling, PhD, is Distinguished of aggression by another country. I have belabored Professor of History at Lehigh University. Among this point because it reveals one of the problems his many publications are: American Issues (with attendant on macro theory, namely the dependence, Curti, Thorp, and Baker); articles in journals such in certain instances, on secondary sources. as the Psychoanalytic Review, Dalhousie Review, Journal of Psychohistory, and Journal of Psycho- Let me turn to the issue that bothers me analytic Anthropology; and book chapters on John most: the relationship between leaders, institutions, Adams and on terrorism. Professor Dowling is a and the psychogenic theory of history. In a recent member of the Editorial Board of Clio’s Psyche, review article in The New York Review of Books, and may be contacted at .  Robert Skidelsky (“The Mystery of Growth,” Vol. L No. 4. March 13, 2003:28-31) reviewed two works: one by Liah Greenfield, The Spirit of Capi- A Hedgehog’s Opus talism: Nationalism and Economic Growth (2001), and the other by the Nobel Prize-winning econo- Reviewed by a Fox mist Robert E. Lucas, Lectures on Economic Paul H. Elovitz Growth (2002). It is not my intention to enter that Ramapo College and the debate. I simply want to use it as a springboard to International Psychohistorical Association raise some questions. For the sake of discussion, I want to pose a The range of The Emotional Life of Nations question to deMause. Accepting as a premise that is breathtaking. It starts with how personal experi- Max Weber was right when he said that Protestant- ences determine political behavior, stresses psy- ism was the carrier of the “spirit of capitalism” and chohistorical theory, and concludes with psycho- the Protestant ethic is behind the great economic historical evolution. Childhood, violence, and war and scientific success of the West, particularly are Lloyd deMause’s main psychohistorical foci. Britain (and I note the more advanced psychoclass These are vitally important subjects to which he in Northern Germany compared to Catholic Bava- brings the erudition of four decades of psychohis- ria), how does one determine the role of the psy- torical research and thousands of footnotes. He choclass(es) in creating the institutions of capitalist uses extensive anthropological, clinical, historical, society, and when do the institutions begin to have and neurological evidence. I will examine his book momentum of their own? It is little bit like the from my perspective as a historian, psychoanalyst, problems Marxists have with their concept of psychohistorian, and “intellectual fox.” First I will structure and superstructure. The Scots turned to explain what I mean by the last term. Calvinism, which became the engine for great I first developed the psychohistorical Scottish successes in both trade and intellectual hedgehog-fox dichotomy in the Rudolph Binion Page 40 Clio’s Psyche September 2003

“Group Psychohistory Symposium” in Clio’s Psy- sion: deMause thinks that “most of what is in his- che (December 2000, Vol. 7 No 3:148-149). An tory books is stark raving mad” and reports that idea of Tolstoy’s inspired Sir Isaiah Berlin to write these books, as well as the news, literally leave him his well-known essay “The Hedgehog and the Fox” in tears (p. 108). in 1953, in which he divided all intellectuals into There are a variety of careless errors and two separate categories: hedgehogs and foxes. The questionable usages in The Emotional Life of Na- hedgehog sits on his mound viewing the prairie in tions, as well as some omissions. For example, every direction, enabling him to know one big Glenn Davis’ surname is misspelled as “David” (p. thing and therefore build an intellectual system. 13). On page 223, the subject heading is “War in By comparison, the fox knows many little things, the Next Century,” but clearly the author is writing as he sniffs around, but not one big thing. Berlin of our current 21st century. He refers to the first saw Marx as a hedgehog and himself as a fox. In President Bush (George Herbert Walker Bush) as these terms deMause is a hedgehog and I am a fox. “George H. Bush” (p. 14), which is not an accept- We see the world from rather different perspec- able usage, to differentiate him from his eldest son, tives. Let me as a historian explain some of the George Walker Bush. He could have differentiated predilections of my profession. the two presidents Bush as “Bush the 41st presi- The main focus of historians is on archival dent” and “Bush the 43rd president.” research, primary sources, and concern for careful, DeMause jumps to conclusions on the basis logical argumentation. The profession tends to be of limited information, for example, claiming that conservative and slow to accept theories from psy- Ronald Reagan’s childhood “was more [than that chology or any of the social sciences. In practice, of Carter and Eisenhower] like that of most presi- most of the educated public needs to utilize certain dents: a nightmare of neglect and abuse” (p. 13). psychological terminology before more than a Recently, I spent most of a year reading psycho- handful of historians will be inclined to put it in analytically informed studies of American presi- print in order to face the scrutiny of their col- dents, and it is clear to me that we simply do not leagues. Broad generalizations about periods of have data to support this claim of presidential history and the human condition are usually taken “neglect and abuse.” Furthermore, deMause has seriously by the profession only when they ema- insufficient evidence to claim, on the basis of nate from colleagues who have earned their cre- Reagan’s autobiography (pp. 9 & 11), that the fu- dentials by painstaking archival work and have the ture president’s mother was obsessively religious” prestige of holding endowed chairs at major uni- or that her husband was a “violent alcoholic fa- versities. To reiterate, historians consistently stress ther.” Information in Reagan’s autobiography evidence, archival research, and traditional proc- raises these possibilities, but deMause does not do esses of argumentation. the interviewing and detailed archival research to Lloyd deMause does not work in the dusty confirm or deny his assumptions. archives on the private papers of individuals, nor Alice Miller, whom he cites as a source for does he usually follow many of the canons of the Hitler’s childhood (p. 49), is a pathbreaking author historical profession. He makes sweeping generali- on child abuse. Nevertheless, what she writes on zations; creates numerous terms of his own inven- Hitler, while providing valuable insights into fam- tion (“fetal psychology,” “poison containers,” ily dynamics based upon her clinical experience as “poison placenta,” “psychogenic pump theory,” a psychoanalyst, is derived from secondary sources “social alters,” etc.); and uses technical psycho- and is historically weak. Regarding omissions in logical language (“borderline,” “phallic,” “schiz- The Emotional Life of Nations, there is no bibliog- oid,” etc.) on the one hand and commonplace lan- raphy and the authors cited in the notes are not in- guage on the other (“bad children,” “killer mom- cluded in the lengthy index. The author fails to mies,” “punitive mommies,” etc.). He tends to credit Professor Rudolph Binion with developing jump from era to era, and is sometimes careless the concept of traumatic repetition, which is used with details. He quotes himself and the authors he extensively in this volume. has published far more than is customary, and does From my perspective as a psychohistorian, not cite scholars who are not affiliated with him as deMause is too quick to make sweeping generali- much as he should, though in some areas this can zations, with broad categories such as “The Schiz- be difficult because he in working in virgin terri- oid Psychoclass of Tribal Societies,” “The Border- tory. He has little regard for the historical profes- line Psychoclass of Later Christianity,” and “The September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 41

Depressive Psychoclass of the Renaissance.” I around to learn more and more about the person I sometimes find his categories to be valuable as hy- am working to understand and help, and sometimes potheses, but not as proven fact. While I do not only have a clear understanding of the full psycho- have the time and space to challenge the above dynamics involved after many years of work. generalizations about large time periods, I can eas- While the concept of historical group fantasy ily point out two examples of questionable gener- analysis has considerable appeal to me, I have alizations from the last decade, starting with his never been able to reconcile its sweeping generali- claim that “no American war began in the first year zations about the millions, hundreds of millions, or of any president” (p. 5, note 4). Did not the Ameri- billions of people one has never met with the real- can war against the Taliban of Afghanistan, as part ity of how difficult it is to understand even one in- of the War on Terrorism, begin in the first year dividual and how inadequate diagnostic categories (2001) of George W. Bush’s presidency, with the sometimes are in this process. Afghan capital of Kandahar being captured in early Lloyd deMause is self-trained and has not December 2001? DeMause asserts that presidents had the long supervised apprenticeship of the psy- go through “the four leadership stages of (1) choanalyst-in-training teaching him how not to strong, (2) cracking, (3) collapse, and (4) up- project his own unconscious desires onto the sub- heaval,” stating that “in the first year or so of his ject, always a problem for any scholar, psychohis- term of office, the leader is portrayed as grandiose, torical or not. Psychoanalysts-in-training spend phallic, and invincible” (p. 129), while my own many years in individual and group psychoanalysis research on President Clinton directly contradicts where they learn about their own unconscious. this pattern. (See "Childhood, Personality and One learns to observe and listen carefully and not Clinton's First Year: Why Was There No Honey- say much. An important part of listening is to en- moon Period?" in the Journal of Psychohistory, counter one’s own unconscious -- the normally not Vol. XXI, Winter 1994:257-286.) articulated fantasies about and in relationship to the As an intellectual hedgehog, deMause sees patient. psychohistory as a science, which does enable him My inability to reconcile the promise and to probe the life of nations and even attempt the reality of historical group fantasy analysis is not unorthodox claim of making predictions. I wonder for want of trying. I learned the rules of fantasy how many have actually come true. By contrast, as analysis, taught the subject to my students, and an intellectual fox, I see psychohistory and history used the methodology for about a decade until dis- as art forms, using intuition as well as the scientific continuing its regular use, mostly because the fan- method. His evidence is based upon what he calls tasies uncovered almost always reflected the psy- group fantasy derived from advertisements, car- chic needs of the analyzers more than the public toons, comics, fetal research, newspapers, and being observed. After a late 1980 meeting of the other soft evidence, as well as the standard schol- Institute for Psychohistory, when deMause formed arly monographs. Like most historians, who are a seminar on American Group Fantasy, I was one foxes, I prefer to work on individuals rather than of the regular members of this group. We met in large groups and to mostly limit my generalizations Manhattan for about six months. By the time of to shorter periods of history. Hinckley’s assassination attempt on President Besides being a historian, I am trained as a Reagan on March 30, 1981, it was apparent to me psychoanalyst and naturally examine the notion of that the group was split between the members who historical group fantasy analysis from the perspec- saw increasingly violent fantasies in the media and tive of psychoanalysis. In professional presenta- those who mostly saw other things. Personally, I tions, deMause has often referred to himself as like found abundant pollution fantasies. Several years a psychoanalyst listening to the emotions and fan- later, I organized the American Fantasy Analysis tasies, not of the individual, but of the nation. Yet Research Project and in 1985 published its findings as a trained psychoanalyst I find his categories to in the Journal of Psychohistory with Henry be too broad and his generalizations to be much too Lawton and George Luhrmann. Our conclusion, sweeping. For the sake of clinic intake or insurance based upon the fantasy analysis by psychohistori- forms, I make rather quick judgments about diag- ans of the same documents was that there was nosis, but the reality is that it takes years to really some value in the methodology. However, this understand many patients as the layers of defense does not mean that I find deMause or anyone else’s are slowly lifted in treatment. As a fox I sniff use of fantasy analysis any more than merely sug- Page 42 Clio’s Psyche September 2003 gestive. alism, wars, and other grandiose projects” (p. 430). The problem with group fantasy analysis War is the subject of Lloyd deMause’s next continues to be: What is the analyzer projecting book, as he continues his lifelong struggle to un- into the materials as opposed to what feelings are derstand and prevent it. It is my hope that in writ- induced by the materials themselves? All psycho- ing it, he will tighten his argumentation and draw analysts face this dilemma of the countertransfer- more on the recent scholarship of those outside his ence, which is why the training involves a long immediate circle to find a larger audience of psy- apprenticeship during which there are a variety of choanalysts, historians, psychohistorians, and foxes control analyses in which the analyst-in-training like me. describes and analyzes his work in detail and is Paul H. Elovitz, PhD, taught at Temple, helped to improve it by a seasoned psychoanalyst. Rutgers, and Fairleigh Dickinson universities In my case, there were 10 control analyses, averag- before becoming a Founding Member of Ramapo ing over a year each and in some cases overlap- College, where he teaches history, psychohistory, ping. If group fantasy analysis is to have wide and interdisciplinary studies. He became a credibility in the psychodynamic community, it psychohistorian in the 1960s and is a founding needs this type of careful supervision. In any case, member of the IPA of which he has been president it seems unlikely that it will find ready acceptance (1988-1990), vice president, treasurer, newsletter among non-psychological scholars. editor, and group process analyst. As a member of To improve the methodology of group fan- the Institute for Psychohistory he co-founded the tasy analysis, I put considerable time and energy Saturday Workshop Seminars in 1975 and chaired into writing a major grant proposal to study it. A or co-chaired them until they ended in 1983. He large cost of the project would be to pay a group of then founded the Psychohistory Forum and in 1994 highly respected psychoanalysts, who were open to became founding editor of Clio’s Psyche. He may the ideas of psychohistory, to supervise those do- be contacted at .  ing group fantasy analysis to help them understand how their psychic needs influenced their interpreta- tions. Another goal would be to determine how Wanted: A Book with Feeling closely different analyzers, working independently and not being part of a particular school of thought, David Felix would replicate each other’s analysis. Regrettably, City University of New York funding was never forthcoming. To my mind, the The historian Christine Stansell has re- question of the value of group fantasy analysis re- called that “Lucien Febvre, the great French histo- mains open. rian of the Annales school, ... called urgently in DeMause is so passionate in applying the 1941, from occupied Paris, for a new history of the psychohistorical methods he has devised, espe- emotions, without which ‘there will be no history cially group fantasy analysis, that he appears to possible’” (“The Pages of Eros,” The New Repub- have none of my doubts, though he is aware that lic 222, March 6, 2000:30). The Emotional Life of “much of this book is upsetting and difficult to be- Nations is not that history. lieve” (p. vii), and he has occasionally said that In our time at least two historians have pro- even only a small number of people in the IPA un- duced works closer to Febvre's wish than the de- derstand and accept his ideas. In surveying his Mause book. In his series France: 1848-1945, book, I am reminded of a point the late Professor Theodore Zeldin published two volumes address- Sidney Halpern of Temple University made about ing the emotions broadly: Ambition and Love certain advocates of new approaches to under- (1973) and Anxiety and Hypocrisy (1977). The pro- standing. They are like prophets who have a vision digious Peter Gay has more recently completed the of a wonderful future they are so eager to achieve five-volume The Bourgeois Experience: Victoria to that they see it happening even when it is not oc- Freud (1984-1998), which includes The Education curring. The author of The Emotional Life of Na- of the Senses, The Tender Passion, The Cultivation tions may show some of these tendencies when it of Hatred, The Naked Heart, and The Pleasure comes to the quality of historical group fantasy Wars. Both Zeldin and Gay communicate a great analysis and the results of the helping mode of range and depth of feeling, a quality lacking in de- childrearing -- the helping-mode children he writes Mause's massive conceptions and strident right- about are empathetic and “lack all need for nation- September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 43 eousness. Yet he has a worthy subject and has ap- study based on hard, provable fact, none of which plied ambitious thought to it. is evident. In fact, all of his major conclusions have As a historian of childhood, deMause has been reached before he began the book and pre- produced a study of good and bad childrearing sented here as established truths. practices and the related emotions, good and bad, DeMause has rejected the findings of most felt by parents and children. But this is a narrow social scientists -- and anthropologists perhaps band of emotionality, which is not examined in any more particularly -- whose data he uses against depth, while place and time studied are similarly them. Similarly, in the long chapters “The Gulf restricted to scattered selections of medieval and War as an Emotional Disorder” and “War as Right- modern European experience, American political eous Rape and Purification,” he posits war as a history, and anthropologists’ views of timeless psychic experience and denies such motives as New Guinea. land, oil, water, ethnic hostility, political aims, or While he has limited his emotional range, defense. Similarly, he rejects Freud's “instinct for deMause has also effectively bypassed the hatred and aggression” as “wholly tautological, “Nations” of his title. Indeed, he excludes them to saying no more than ‘the group's desire for war is the benefit of his “psychoclasses,” which displace caused by the individual’s desire for war’” since political and economic man with homo relatens the group is made up of individuals (p.138). In this oriented to a quest for love rather than money and he casually denies the existence of the individual power (p. 98). These healthier or traumatized psy- and his Freudian id, with its potential for aggres- choclasses, according to deMause, originate in sion, as a first cause. He argues paralogically that good or bad childrearing modes. The essence of the since “tribes and states spend more of their time at book is the concerns of parenting. A more accu- peace [than at war] one must also posit an instinct rate title would be A Selective History of Child- for peace” (p.138). Why should the one exclude rearing Through the Ages. It is an important sub- the other? ject and deMause’s emphasis on it has helped to DeMause's method, which his sources repair much undeserved neglect. document, is to generate data shaped by his a pri- If his investigations base themselves on ori conclusions. In The History of Childhood childrearing, deMause's conceptions range (edited) he proposed six modes of childrearing throughout boundless history. He begins the book (and in the The Emotional Life of Nations, has ex- with a blockbuster sentence: panded them to seven). These were then further developed in Jimmy Carter and American Fantasy This book demonstrates how the source (co-edited), Reagan’s America, Foundations of of most human violence and suffering has Psychohistory, and more than 100 articles. He been a hidden children's holocaust wrote or edited these books and published the arti- throughout history, whereby millions of cles in the Journal of Psychohistory under his edi- innocent human beings have been routinely torship. Similarly, he inspired studies in German murdered, bound, starved, raped, mutilated, childbearing through the German branch of his In- battered, and tortured by their parents and stitute for Psychohistory (pp. 245-246; n. 246). other caregivers, so that they grow up as Since he influenced the data when he did not initi- emotionally crippled adults and become ate it, this risks becoming an exercise in socially vengeful time bombs who periodically organized circular reasoning. restage their early traumas in sacrificial rites called wars (p. vii). On another question, deMause would reject Darwin for Lamarck, while denying what he is do- Granting the enormity in this vision, the ing and claiming: “This isn't Lamarckian” (p. 235). author continues: “Much of this book is upsetting Well, a bit of acknowledged Lamarckianism might and difficult to believe…” (p. vii). I must confess be useful. Upon a few suggestions by theorists of that I cannot find the book upsetting because it is molecular biology, he has evolved his not only difficult to believe, it is impossible. De- “psychogenic theory of historical evolution,” Mause arbitrarily pronounces: “changes in child which would have behavior changing genes. In rearing precede social change…” (p. vii). Thus his fact, DNA sequencing has led to the observation childrearing is elevated to the first cause of social that the effects of a few genes can be switched on events like wars. Such a statement should come and off. This can hardly lead to the deMausian- only as a conclusion to an extended, reasoned italicized conclusion: “epigenetic neuronal varia- Page 44 Clio’s Psyche September 2003 tions originating in changing interpersonal relation- “Mother/God” figure begins by devouring, seduc- ships with caregivers are the primary source of the ing, or abandoning the child, and ends with trusting evolution of the psyche and society” (p. 235). He and loving it. The scheme demands that the reader has no right to lay down the absolute law that believe (1) that each childrearing era and mode is “changing interpersonal relationships” are the associated with a unique personality, ideal, “primary source” for the huge change he wants, the Mother/God, and sacrifice, and (2) that parallel “epigenetic chance to rewire the psyche.” improvements occur, which in the end produce the Armed with his psychogenic theory, de- perfectly adjusted, perfectly socialized individuals Mause attacks anthropologists on maternal love in of the post-modern era. At this point one is forced primitive society. All of them report loving rela- to ask: Why has this perfection not eliminated the tions of mothers with children. By contrast, de- suffering and wars so much deplored by deMause? Mause collects data on infanticide, outright cruelty, Indeed, the Table of Historical Personali- incest, sexual games, and other derelictions. By ties denies the need for the author’s hastily ap- expanding on them and minimizing the majority of pended happy ending. With its post-modern, help- cases, and so reversing the proportions, he trium- ing mode of individuated, loving activists, it comes phantly conclude that all the experts were wrong after continual references to bad childrearing as a and that he was right -- that there had been a steady source of suffering and war. In the face of this, evi- improvement over time in the treatment of children dently not trusting his own scheme, deMause pro- (for example, the long, repetitive, overlapping poses a new and redundant solution in the book's chapters “Childhood and Cultural Evolution” and final section of one-and-a-half pages (pp. 431- “The Evolution of Child Rearing,” pp. 229-379). 432). He places his faith in the creation of physi- Yet in another passage, he grants “perhaps half of cian-psychohistorian Robert McFarland. This is the adults today were sexually abused as children, “The Parenting Place,” an establishment in Boul- that most of us were physically and emotionally der, Colorado, where obedient parents of infants abused to some extent...” (p. 382). He refuses to let receive weekly visits for parenting instruction. De- these contradictions inhibit his progress towards Mause trusts that this method, which seems intru- his happier conclusions. sive to me in any case, will “make our world safe In the book deMause is driving toward an for the first time in our long, violent history.” He epiphany of perfected childrearing and peace. Be- has more faith that this unreconstructed reviewer. low is his “Table of Historical Personalities,” sche- David Felix, PhD, is an intellectual and matizing it (from p. 395). economic historian who has published biographies According to the scheme, mankind's child- of Walther Rathenau, Karl Marx, and John rearing practices begin with tribal “early infanti- Maynard Keynes. He is presently working on a cidal” action and improve with time to the contem- study of major economic and political interactions porary post-modern “helping” phase. In tandem in the 20th-century world. Professor Felix may be with each stage of childrearing are “personalities” reached at .  from “schizoid” to “individuated,” while the

Table of Historical Personalities

Child Rearing [Era: Mode] Personality Ideal Mother/God Sacrifice

Tribal: early infanticidal Schizoid Shaman Devours, seduces, abandons child To animal spirits

Antiquity: late infanticidal Narcissist Hero Kills, punishes evil child To human gods

Christian: abandoning Masochist Martyr Forgives hurt child Self-torture

Middle Ages: ambivalent Borderline Vassal Dominates, beats worshipful child Subservient clinging

Renaissance: intrusive Depressive Holy Warrior Disciplines obedient child Obeying

Modern: socializing Neurotic Patriot Manipulates child Incomplete separation

Post-Modern: helping Individuated Activist Trusts, loves child No sacrifice of real self September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 45

Modifying deMause England. Children in the Germanies may not have been treated as miserably as deMause maintains. Peter Petschauer Allow me to stay with just two of these Appalachian State University points. What accounts for Württemberg's unicam- Reviewing Lloyd deMause's writing is eral parliament? Was it the high literacy rate? Was truly rewarding intellectually; The Emotional Life it unusually advanced childrearing that may be im- of Nations is no exception. It is a brilliant work plicit in its high literacy? Then, too, one must ask that will push the parameters of several areas about England's success. Can we really ignore its within psychohistory onto new levels. Most histo- location and access to raw materials? Or, on the rians will unfortunately not read this book simply other hand, can we ignore the Continent's lack of because our field is such that few members of it such resources and still its plethora of courts and explore beyond the so-called core of it; we do not their brilliant cultures? Said differently, are we to like to be at the margins. If we did, the field would ignore the music and art of 18th-century France be enriched, and as a group we would enjoy a and Central Europe, and 19th-century Vienna? If deeper understanding of the origins of war and childrearing was as miserable as it is purported to many other political/social/economic processes. If be in these parts of Europe, whence came this crea- we did, deMause's insights and challenges would tive genius? While England was industrializing, be enlivened and deepened. Unfortunately, too, no Central Europeans and Frenchmen created the Ba- review can do justice to his erudition. roque and the Rococo. Were the beautiful artifacts they created a release for childhood oppression? One of deMause's major theses comes on Maybe, but my evidence shows otherwise. Who p. 97, where he says that "...each generation of par- will want to argue that the brute abuse of human ents tortures, abuses, neglects, and dominates its beings associated with industrialization is a higher children until they become emotionally crippled accomplishment than Beethoven's Quartet for Pi- adults who repeat in nearly exact detail the social ano and Strings in E-flat or Strauss' Blue Danube violence and domination that existed in previous Waltz? decades.” In spite of this horror, deMause goes on with a hopeful next sentence in which he sees a Reading the letters of composers of sym- decrease of abuse and neglect, and, thus, a some- phonies and operas; builders of churches, palaces, what more secure and loving environment: one that homes and cities; and literati of the time, shows will allow history to move in surprising directions. men and women, German and Jewish, who were All the same, children are still crying, and de- treated well in their families. Even those who were Mause’s assessment remains an accurate picture of not as talented as Mozart found in art an astonish- much of what children experienced and still experi- ing outlet. In the more than 20 years I collected ence. But this is not the only assessment available. data on more than 2000 German women artists, musicians, and writers of the 18th century, one of One must ask again: Is history only about the most significant findings is that the vast major- the working out of children's experiences without ity of them attended public schools, and that fami- significant alteration, even improvement, from lies and marriage partners supported many in their other experiences in a person's, or a nation's, life? later endeavors. Central Europe had the most ad- My answer continues to be that other experiences vanced public education system then, and one rea- shape both individuals and nations. Thus, to argue son we can research abuses and lack thereof in that England made the industrial breakthrough in families and in classrooms is that there were class- the 18th century because of its advanced childrear- rooms and literate people. By 1800 the state of ing ignores five major considerations: Even if Eng- Württemberg enjoyed a literacy rate of over 90 land was a place for improved childrearing, it was percent; that is why an ordinary farmer could write also the one where child labor was extensively about his exploits with the Napoleonic army in used in factories and mines. Switzerland is also Russia. Yes, that is why Schiller, Goethe, and now shown to have made the industrial break- many other men and women could flourish. through during the 18th century as well. The king- dom of Württemberg had a functioning parliament I am, in other words, unconvinced of over- from the 16th to the late 18th centuries, that is, un- lap among industrialization, democracy, and other til Napoleon abolished it. The economics of France creativities. To find such an overlap violates the and the then Germanies, if there was such a being evidence from Athens and India; more importantly, as a national economy, were different from that of it violates the concept that different forms of child- Page 46 Clio’s Psyche September 2003 rearing are consistent with different forms of de- ily. Families of the past need to be understood as mocracy, industrialization, and other forms of so- being in households, even in the West, more than cial/cultural expression. When we speak of abused 90 percent of which were subsistence farms. Hav- children, and women, we think of course of Ath- ing grown up in such a situation, I can say with ens, Sparta, and Rome, favorites of world civiliza- assurance that deMause’s mother- or father- tion instructors. Yet I have often wondered why the centered situation does not hit the mark. House- Athenians with their repressive childrearing could holds were not nuclear families in which fathers be the inventors of the Western form of democ- and mothers were principal reference persons. A racy. How indeed could these very Greeks be at the household often included several siblings, an older forefront of every science we study today? The grandparent, an aunt or uncle or two, adoptees (like Romans abused their children and yet invented me), and, of course, servants. several forms of government, one of which the Childrearing in a household is therefore American forefathers felt free to copy in their own different from childrearing in a nuclear family. right. Conversely, whatever happened to the Etrus- The latter probably did not begin to emerge fully cans who treated their women much better than until the 16th century, a time to which deMause their eastern neighbors? has now moved the emergence of the intrusive One day I would like to address the issue family. When the businessman Balthasar and his about why Hitler and the Nazis took over Ger- wife Magdalena brought up their son in 16th- many. I have read most of the materials that de- century Nuremberg, they were not only being in- Mause has read, and I am convinced as well that trusive, they were also living in a nuclear family they do not get at the heart of the matter. But I am and away from the usual household setting of the equally unconvinced that we must only look to time; they were exceptions even in their time. The childrearing for our explanation. I am thinking of personality that has emerged from households has all the older Germans I have known over the not yet been studied sufficiently, and I suspect that course of my own life, and I continue to be sur- the rage often expressed in pre-modern societies prised at how few of them had miserable child- had at least as much to do with confused role mod- hoods. No, they were not just ignoring or sup- els as with mothers. pressing this part of their lives; in their stories, they Finally, deMause was kind enough to cite emphasize a rather mundane reality of National me several times in support of his arguments. It Socialist Germany. It is that they and their fami- may interest readers that I wrote almost all of my lies, or households, took small steps to accede to articles to modify deMause's approach to the his- the National Socialist order once the dictator had tory of childrearing. taken power in 1933. True, in the 1930s and early 1940s, Germans showed a different face in public This review indicates that I disagree with than they did in private; the private face was that of some points in deMause’s work. Indeed! But I also love of family, worry about jobs, fear of losing re- continue to find the full range of his arguments spect, thinking of having to go along, not wanting insightful and stimulating; hardly anyone else I to stand out, and the tradition of respect for author- know has had the courage to tackle the way we do ity. While many people acted up at parade grounds, history now. That is a good thing indeed. these and many other ordinary people made very Peter W. Petschauer, PhD, is Professor of ordinary decisions that supported the regime not History and Director of the Hubbard Center for because they were more abused as children than Faculty and Staff Development at Appalachian the citizens of other nations. Unlike many other State University in Boone, North Carolina. Among national leaders, the National Socialist regime was his many scholarly works are Human Space and particularly adroit in using to its advantage: tradi- Growing Up Female in Eighteenth-Century tional themes, latent hatreds of the other, the me- Germany. He has contributed many articles to the dia, and war. Journal of Psychohistory. Professor Petschauer Another concern pertains to families and may be reached at households. We know that childrearing was the .  duty of women, with some assistance from men. This is a good approach for recent history, but a CFPs: “Election 2004” and “The Psychologi- problem remains with trying to understand child- cal Impact of Television on Politics” hood primarily though the lens of the nuclear fam- Contact Paul H. Elovitz. See page 34. September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 47

Efforts of a Daring Innovator centas, and even occasionally see them myself. It is even harder to deny the predictive and postdictive Leon Rappoport significance of group fantasy analysis. The view Kansas State University that artists of one sort or another are sensitive to the feeling tones of society and consciously or un- As someone who has been following the consciously represent them in their work is in itself development of Lloyd deMause’s work on the psy- widely accepted. It required a very bold, innovative chogenic theory of history for the past 30 years -- effort, however, to pursue the implications of this George Kren and I had our paper on “Clio and Psy- view and create the technique of fantasy analysis. che” published in his History of Childhood Quar- terly in 1973, and on his visit to our university Finally, there is the relatively brief but im- about that time, his challenging ideas upset most of portant argument for the large-scale introduction of our colleagues in history and psychology -- it is parent training centers in our society and others as very clear to me that The Emotional Life of Nations well. If nothing else, this stands out as a major provides a wonderfully readable, comprehensive, attempt to move from theory to practice, from di- and, thankfully, still challenging review of current agnosis to remediation. While there is still only psychogenic theory. In many respects, the term anecdotal or illustrative evidence available sup- theory does not do it justice, because it is also an porting the effectiveness of parent training, at least ontology and philosophy of human behavior. (I it offers a welcome hint of optimism about what recall in this connection deMause’s saying he may be possible in the future. named his son after A.S. Neill, the British pioneer My own view of the future, however, re- of enlightened childrearing and education practices mains quite dim. As much as I admire the insights at Summerhill.) and achievements presented in The Emotional Life But rather than commenting further on the of Nations, it seems to me that conditions in our history of psychohistory, one that remains to be society, and in the world at large, are such that we written and will someday make fascinating reading are still light-years away from the promised land of [see “The Making and Makers of Psychohistory enlightened childrearing. All sorts of studies indi- and Psychological Society,” p. 33] I would like to cate that we are increasingly living in a two-class emphasize here what I see as the three most out- world system divided between haves and have- standing contributions this book makes to the field: nots. More specifically, there is the familiar litany the careful, abundant documentation of how prena- of American problems concerning the well-being tal and childhood traumas translate into adult be- of children: single parent families, child pornogra- havior tendencies; the presentation of the methods phy and abuse, scandalous foster care systems, in- and theory of group fantasy analysis; and the dis- effective schools, poor health care, and other issues cussion of parent training centers. In the first in- that are all exacerbated by the current economic stance, I consider the citations of relevant research downturn. In short, the question I would have liked findings throughout the book to be particularly im- to see discussed is whether good parenting is con- portant partly because this stands on its own as an tingent on minimally adequate socio-economic unusual tour de force of multi-disciplinary scholar- conditions. Or are we destined to see steadily im- ship, and partly because it provides much of the proved parenting among the educated, securely substantive evidence needed in order to answer well off, while the lumpen underclass continues to critics of psychohistory. “take their chances.” And what about those so- called “resilient children” who apparently emerge The discussions of group fantasy analysis intact from the underclass despite the odds against presented in the chapters on assassinations and war them? We clearly need to learn more about such are especially impressive to me because I recall questions. being quite skeptical about the idea that one could find important indications of national moods and Consequently, while sincerely applauding their likely consequences by analyzing magazine The Emotional Life of Nations, I can’t help won- covers, cartoons, ads for films, and other media dering how much it may depend on the economic representations. I am still not entirely comfortable life of nations. Or is this a chicken and the egg with the technique, but over the years since the question? In any case, I heartedly agree with the work covered in these chapters first appeared, I laudatory blurbs on back of the book jacket, espe- have found it increasingly hard to deny the media cially the richly deserved reference to deMause as imagery of terrifying mothers and poisonous pla- “an endlessly daring innovator.” Page 48 Clio’s Psyche September 2003

Leon Rappoport, PhD, received his on Times Square!” Even though deMause lives just doctoral degree in personality-social psychology at two blocks to the west of me, when I read his state- the University of Colorado in 1963, and is ments I sometimes wonder if we inhabit the same Professor of Psychology (Emeritus) and was universe. Certainly, I found no evidence that the formerly Director of the Social-Personality public gave permission for Kennedy’s assassina- Psychology Graduate Program at Kansas State tion. As for his alleged death wish, or willingness University. He has published work in the areas of to be sacrificed, again, my research found no sub- personality development, decision-making, jective evidence to support this point. In fact, if Holocaust studies, and food cognition. His book Kennedy had such a death wish, because of his ter- on the psychosocial meanings of food, How We rible health, he would have been dead before his Eat: Appetite, Culture, and the Psychology of 10th birthday. As for the inclusion of the Hinckley Food, became available this year. Professor assassination attempt on President Reagan, the pur- Rappoport may be contacted at pose seems to be an excuse to describe the adula- .  tion of the deMause’s undergraduate students, right after he predicted it would happen. “The Gulf War as an Emotional Disor- The Emotions of der” (Chapter 2) begins with Ronald Reagan’s cas- Lloyd deMause tration fear. Where’s the Rest of Me?, the title of the actor/politician’s autobiography, seems to J. Lee Shneidman prove that point, except that line is actor Reagan’s Adelphi University most famous line. In the movie King’s Row, he says it when he wakes up in the hospital to dis- The first sentence (which is also the first cover that both his legs had been amputated -- vis- paragraph) of Lloyd deMause’s new book, The cously and needlessly, as it turns out. (Actor Emotional Life of Nations, is seven lines long and Reagan was usually cast in Grade B movies; states, “This book demonstrates how the source of King’s Row was one of his few Grade A movies.) most human violence and suffering had been a hid- As for George H.W. Bush, allegedly creating a re- den children’s holocaust through history…” (p. cession and the 1991 Gulf War to punish America vii). Before reaching the end of the sentence/ for its prosperity and victory in the Cold War, too paragraph, it is clear that what we have under re- much of the evidence comes from deMause’s pre- view is another well-written, provocative polemic vious writing, others’ articles in the Journal of Psy- by deMause, which tells us more about the author chohistory and Rolling Stone, and cartoons. The than history, for reasons I will enumerate below. evidence for using Iraqi women and children as The second sentence/paragraph states that sacrifice for American prosperity is also problem- “Much of this book is upsetting and difficult to atic. believe, despite that extensive historical … evi- “The Childhood Origins of Terror- dence I will present.” My remarks will be con- ism” (Chapter 3) explains everything in terms of fined to the historical evidence presented, though I “abusive families.” The section on female mutila- cannot judge the validity of all the cartoons and tion (clitoridectomy) is well-researched in English comic books the author cites. DeMause uses copi- sources. Lacking, however, is any attempt to ex- ous footnotes. Unfortunately, at crucial points the plain why women wish to inflict upon their daugh- authority cited is either a previous publication of ters, that which has been done to them. Also miss- his or an article in the Journal of Psychohistory, a ing in this section is any attempt to discuss the publication owned and edited by deMause, in ETA (a Basque separatist group), IRA (Irish Re- which some authors express their gratitude for the publican Army), Bakhunist terrorists, Ku Klux owner/editor’s brilliant insights. Klan, or the whole mélange of non-Muslim terror- “The Assassination of Leaders” (Chapter ists. 1) deals with Presidents Kennedy and Reagan. In Regarding “Restaging Early Traumas in opposition to deMause’s findings, my memory and War and Social Violence” (Chapter 4), there is no research do not permit me to view the American question but that childhood is both difficult and public as being disappointed and angry that we did painful for children and their parents. The report not go to war over the presence of Russian missiles that Adolph Hitler had an abusive father, the boy in Cuba. In fact, just the opposite occurred; the “once enduring 230 blows of his father’s cane” (p. feeling was, “Thank God, there will be no bombs September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 49

49), is presented as proof of the horrors of Austrian of this nightmare four decades later in the Holo- childrearing. As evidence, the author cites two sec- caust and World War II can at least be under- ondary sources, and one wonders who kept score. stood.” To accept his logic, you must go beyond DeMause then begins to develop his theories of the the raising of children in the Hapsburg Empire, and terrible mother, the poisonous placenta, and fetal explain why the childrearing practices of the psychology. All philatelists are familiar with vi- United Kingdom and France did not allow their gnettes of Athena (the goddess of Athens), leaders to stop Hitler early in his career of aggres- Marianne (the symbol of France), Britannia, and, sion. History is over-determined. Simplistic solu- although less so, Freyja (a Norse goddess). At no tions to complex problems, such as those suggested time are they represented as “devouring, raping, by deMause, are not satisfactory. and ripping apart [their] children.” In fact, the first “Childhood and Cultural Evolu- three are always represented as positive, even tion” (Chapter 7) contains some interesting data on when armed, because they are protectors rather New Guinea, while “The Evolution of Child Rear- than destroyers, as wrongly claimed in this volume. ing” (Chapter 8) confirms that there have been In “The Psychogenic Theory of His- changes in the practice of childrearing. The last tory” (Chapter 5), the author writes, “My overall paragraph of the last chapter, “The Evolution of conclusions have not changed after three decades Psyche and Society” (Chapter 9), begins with of additional research from what I wrote in The “Only by starting now on a vast worldwide pro- History of Childhood” (p. 96), published by his gram to end child neglect and abuse and raise all Psychohistory Press in 1974. By this time the our precious children with respect can we avoid the reader begins to concern himself with the author, likely coming of global holocaust” (p. 432). This who has constantly interposed himself in the narra- heartfelt plea is personal, but it has nothing to do tive. The author has supplied sufficient data for the with history. reader to imagine a most harsh childhood, where A famous quote from Omar Khayyám’s the author felt responsible for his mother’s leaving The Rubaiyat comes to mind: “The moving finger the family and that he deserved the beatings he re- writes, and having writ, moves on….” One cannot ceived from his father (p. 104). Since he also re- undo the past. It is there and will always be there. fers to often crying over a 25-year period when he The best one can do it come to terms with it -- to watches the news or reads history books, whose resolve the gambit, even if it is a draw. Perhaps materials he calls “stark raving mad” (p. 108), I someday Lloyd deMause will finally be heard, and wonder about the state of his emotions. The author then the placenta can receive some positive atten- places the origin of his problems in the womb, with tion and we can have some progress in childrearing the battle between the fetus and the placenta. Now, and reducing violence. Until then, The Emotional it is true, that the placenta is restrictive, but it is Life of Nations is a work that tells us more about also nourishing and protective. The author has little the author than about its purported subject. interest in this latter aspect. The author demands to be heard and feels that for three decades he has Lee Shneidman, PhD, is Professor failed in his quest, so he repeats and repeats in the Emeritus of History at Adelphi University, with hope that someone will eventually hear. specializations in historical methodology and Spanish history. In addition to numerous articles, The author states that “The psychogenic he has published books on Franco, Kennedy, and theory of history is a scientific, empirical, falsifi- medieval Spain. He recently completed Leading able theory based on a model that involves shared from Weakness: Overt and Covert Foreign Policy restaging of dissociated memories of early traumas of Thomas Jefferson, 1801-1807. Dr. Shneidman the content of which changes through the evolution was chair for many years of the Columbia of childhood” (p. 97). What does that mean? For University Seminar on the History of Legal and the next 39 pages he elaborates, but too often he Political Thought and Institutions; is a member of simply cites previous writings or supportive mate- the Board of Collaborators of Indice Historico rial from his Journal. Español in Barcelona as well as of the In “War as Righteous Rape and Purifica- Psychohistory Forum; and for several years edited tion” (Chapter 6), deMause states that “if German the bulletin of the International Psychohistorical childhood around 1900 is recognized as a night- Association.  mare, murder, neglect, battering, and torture of in- nocent, helpless human beings, then the restaging Page 50 Clio’s Psyche September 2003

DeMause’s Psychology Is at As the above remarks show, my discussion of this work comes from the perspective of history Odds With History rather than psychology. While I would decline to Lawrence A. Tritle call myself a psychohistorian, I have, more than Loyola Marymount University most historians I think, taken into account the hu- man psyche, particularly the impact of war and In his well-known and useful study, What violence on individuals, society, and culture. Is History? (1962), E.H. Carr tackles a perennial While I take some exception to deMause’s criti- challenge to the historical discipline: explaining cism of historians (“what is in most history books causation, or why things happen. Carr begins his is stark raving mad -- the maddest of all being the discussion of causes by telling the story of Mr. historians’ belief that it is sane” or “I often cry Robinson who went out one dark and rainy night when … [I] study history books” (p. 108) -- and he for cigarettes, only to be struck and killed by Mr. wonders why historians remain unenthusiastic Jones’ car. Who was to blame? Jones for driving about his work?), I would agree with him that so- after one too many on a dangerous night unaware cial scientists and historians (the latter in my view he had bad brakes, or Robinson who needed are not social scientists) do not pay enough atten- smokes? Assigning responsibility for the accident tion to psychology (p. 87). Recently, an argument is by no means simple. This is precisely what most made by my University of Chicago teacher Walter historians see, and most reasonable people as well: Kaegi about the seventh-century CE Byzantine em- causation is a murky thing and subject to many peror Heraclius, that his post-Persian War neuroses arguments and interpretations as well as appeals to were perhaps war-related and symptomatic of evidence. PTSD, was pooh-poohed in the Times Literary Supplement by a reviewer who thought it so much Life’s complexities, however, are of little silliness. Such criticisms (short-sighted in my concern to Lloyd deMause, whose study of human view) are made because determining motivation is history through the ages, The Emotional Life of difficult and seldom do historians in particular and Nations, argues that “most human violence and scholars generally have the information necessary suffering has been a hidden children’s holocaust to know to what extent psychological factors are throughout history, whereby billions of innocent involved. For this reason most historians tend to human beings have been routinely murdered, look to “concrete” factors to explain events and the bound, starved, raped” (p. vii). He argues further reasons why people do things, not considering un- that an evolution in childrearing, in which children derlying social and psychological factors that are increasingly loved and cared for, gradually might have a bearing. brought about new “psychoclasses,” which ex- plains why the violence known from the beginning DeMause’s major concern is to explain of time has decreased to today’s level. wars and violence, a topic in which I share not only a professional interest but a personal one: my fa- These assertions I find a little hard to ac- ther flew with the 8th Air Force in Europe in cept. Hardly a newscast goes by, or an issue of the WWII until being shot down over Germany, an daily newspaper -- and this in just about every experience that certainly marked him, and I fought country in the world -- without some sordid story in Vietnam as an infantry lieutenant, something of child abuse (and some of it by children on chil- that changed me, too. The remainder of my re- dren) or kiddy porn on the Internet. These stories marks will inquire into deMause’s assessment of make a mockery of the argument that deMause at- how war and wars come about, looking, too, at the tempts to sustain. In a long Chapter 8, deMause underlying factors. recites a long list of different forms of past child abuse: rape of girls, the ubiquity of child sex mo- “Happy people don’t start wars,” deMause lestation, child abandonment -- but their presence declares (p. 137), though the degree to which peo- today surely robs his ideas of any credibility. Ef- ple are “happy” about the outbreak of wars seems forts, then, to explain events such as Mr. Robin- distorted (see, for example, Niall Ferguson, The son’s death, or the outbreak of the First World War Pity of War, 1998, pp. 174-211, which argues (or any war for that matter), are rarely explained against any euphoria of war in Europe in 1914). convincingly by one factor, and attempting to ex- What reading I have done suggests just the oppo- plain war and violence by the rearing of children is site: war is regarded as bad and something that even less so. must be accepted just like bitter medicine. De- September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 51

Mause asserts that emotional disorders are behind most historians distrust arguments such as those all this and after dismissing social scientists’ views advanced in ELN is that they are too general, based on the origins of war (pp. 138-142), argues that on models, and do not allow for the individual to war is brought on by harsh childrearing practices rise above circumstances -- what philosophers (p. 142) that lead to neurological changes in the would call “displays of free will” (and which is not brain, which incite violence (p. 144). Similarly, listed in the book’s index). sweeping statements like “although the battle- Other disquieting factors are to be found in grounds may change, wars are inevitably about the questionable etymologies: p. 180, infantry from the basic feelings of infancy: trust, security, approval, Latin infans, or “infant,” is actually from the 15th- domination, envy, rage, threats, shame, and inde- century Italian infante, or “boys” as in the boy- pendence” (p. 152) do not help his cause and soldiers of Liberia today; p. 108, German “die sometimes simply ignore what really happened. Sham” for genital area, is in neither Cassell’s or the His explanation, for example, that deficient forms Oxford-Duden German dictionaries; p. 429, Greek of childrearing in the South caused the U.S. Civil damar does not mean “broken into submission,” War (p. 253) omits any consideration of the great but rather “made subject to a husband,” probably debate over slavery, the catalyst that led to seces- the result of a woman (more likely girl) leaving her sion and conflict. father’s household. There are some unfounded Such sweeping generalizations are unfortu- charges, such as the genital mutilation of women in nate because the discussions about neurological Muslim countries “from Somali … to Paki- changes in the brain do have validity and should be stan” (pp. 40-41, who become Arab females at p. looked at by all scholars, including historians, at- 308), ignoring the reality that this occurs either in tempting to understand why people do what they African nations where the practice is cultural and do. At a fall 2002 symposium at UCLA, specialists not religious (Islamic) or among the poorly edu- in a number of fields demonstrated quite clearly cated. (Thanks to my Palestinian colleague Najwa that the brain does change when it is subjected to al-Qattan for some relevant information here.) stress, which certainly would include child-abuse Civilization and culture are used interchangeably as well as that stemming from the violence of war. (p. 281), they ought not to be; not all children were DeMause’s approach, however -- the dismissal of exposed so as to kill them (p. 303); the famous historians, the single-minded focus on child abuse, Oedipus of Greek legend is just one example of a and his use of obscure (and obscuring) jargon- child given away to a childless couple, a reality laden language -- does not encourage receptivity. then as today; and the frenzied women pictured by DeMause seems also to think that soldiers Euripides in Bacchai with their breasts swollen by are able to kill “without overwhelming guilt” (p. milk (p. 406) is a literary allegory, not reality. 109). This is so much foolishness (the sort of thing DeMause cites numerous cases of child that could easily get him into trouble with combat abuse and I would accept that raising children in an vets) and something disproved by: Aeschylus’ play era before Huggies and other disposable diapers Persians and its sympathetic portrayal of the Per- must have been incredibly challenging, and this sian “other” by the playwright who fought them; surely accounts for some of the things he recounts. Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Yet, that children were loved, too, seems to escape Front (Paul Baumer’s speech to the dying French- his notice. Human beings congregated in family man he killed); and U.S. Army Captain W. Winters groups and then settlements in order to protect in Stephen Ambrose’s A Band of Brothers (his their otherwise vulnerable young, and in doing so 1944 killing of a young SS soldier in Holland, created the first towns and cities that led to the troubling him still, 50 years later), among others. great civilizations of the world. In closing, Andro- Generally, deMause treats all cultures as if mache in Euripides' Trojan Women, epitomizes they were alike, not allowing for any differences, this love as she says farewell to her young son Ast- and all people as if they, too, were alike and re- yanax, about to be killed by the Greeks, asking her sponded to conditions in the same way. The life son to embrace and kiss her (lines 757-763), but and acts of Timothy McVeigh are brought up (pp. again deMause prefers to ignore evidence like this. 98-100), but without any thought given to others Lawrence A. Tritle, PhD, is Professor of reared in similar or worse circumstances, who History at Loyola Marymount University in Los don’t blow up buildings. DeMause doesn’t seem Angeles, with a longstanding interest in war and to imagine that this is even possible. The reason trauma. He is the author most recently of From Page 52 Clio’s Psyche September 2003

Melos to My Lai: Violence, Culture, and Survival terribly abusive. So she concluded that there has (2000), a work that examines the trauma of war. been no change in abusive childrearing. The other Professor Tritle may be reached at two-thirds of the mothers’ diaries made no mention .  of childrearing at all. These, Pollock claimed, “must have been good mothers,” since “they would have mentioned abuse if it had existed.” By this My Reply to the Reviewers standard, rape didn’t exist either in the past, be- cause rapists didn’t write their acts down in diaries. Lloyd deMause Journal of Psychohistory In order to try to get historians to even be- gin to begin the difficult task of investigating real Almost four decades ago, I submitted the live children and their parents, and not just simply text for The History of Childhood to Martin conclude without evidence that parental love has Kessler, President of Basic Books Publishers, who been the rule, I offered to give a prize to anyone three years earlier had signed a contract for the who could find one “good-enough” mother -- de- book. He handed it back to me, pointing to the fined as a mother who would not be thrown in jail opening sentence that said, “The history of child- for child abuse today -- before the 18th century. hood is a nightmare from which we have only re- No one has yet applied for the prize. I offer the cently begun to awaken.” He was furious. “I can’t same prize to the reviewers above. publish that!” he told me. “No one will believe My findings on how routine historical child you!” That there were hundreds of pages of evi- neglect and abuse has been and how horrible its dence and thousands of references to primary effect on wars and social violence has been, have sources showing this to be true made no impres- been confirmed by the research published in the sion on him. No one was going to believe me, no Journal of Psychohistory over the past 31 years: matter what my evidence. I had to publish the book nearly 1,000 articles in over 13,500 pages and with myself. almost 70,000 references. Critics like Lee Shneid- Martin was right. Over the past four dec- man in his review above handle this massive evi- ades, dozens of books on the history of childhood dence by simply ignoring it, saying none of it can have come out claiming parents in the past were be trusted since the Journal “is edited by de- loving and children were mainly happy, just like Mause.” I see. Talk about breathtaking denial! they claimed was true today. None of them referred Behind all these denials I see (as you might to any of the evidence we had found, and none predict I would see) a denial of each of the critics’ mentioned any of the several hundred articles in own childhood abuse and neglect. The clue came the Journal of Psychohistory over three decades when I gave a speech recently and someone in the that expanded the research we had done and found audience got up and shouted, “Don’t listen to him! childhood an even more horrible experience than He’s a mother-basher!” By tracing wars and social we had imagined. Instead of encountering our evi- violence to early childhood, I am “just blaming our dence, they substituted drawings of happy children mothers.” But a part of us still needs them so much playing or cite -- like Lawrence Tritle in his review --in the right hemispheres of our brain, the storage above -- a line in a play by Euripides where a place for our early fears -- that it is better to say mother asks her son to kiss her, which proves, our social violence is our own fault (“it’s our in- Tritle says, “that children were loved.” The kinds stinctual aggression,” “it’s because we’re greedy”) of original source material that my associates and I than to try to remember that we were really afraid cited -- from diaries, doctor’s reports, family let- mommy meant it when she said, “I wish I never ters, visitor’s observations, etc. -- were never en- had you!” countered. Instead, they regularly cited the work of one family historian, Linda Pollock, who, they That the tidal wave of fury that has greeted claimed, “has disproven deMause,” so they needn’t my work for four decades is mainly personal resis- mention my work. tance seems impossible, but it is confirmed by the nearly total lack of serious research that challenges Pollock’s methodology was breathtaking. my evidence. After all, the major conclusion of my She read mothers’ diaries over three centuries, and life’s work is simply that if we ever begin to treat counted the number that wrote down their abusive children more lovingly, the world will in fact be childrearing. She found that about a third in each happier and more peaceful. One would think this century mentioned childrearing practices that were would be an unobjectionable conclusion. But, no, it September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 53 cannot be true, not in the past, not today. Wars and wealthy taxpayers and providing proper food and other social problems are analyzed in theories care for poor children would vastly improve the termed “neo-realism,” because they assume from overall level of emotional maturity of America in the start that motives for social violence must be future years. That my findings are in any way “rational,” that is, must only stem from the left “anti-economic” is simply untrue. hemisphere of the brain, and cannot have anything When Paul Elovitz calls my work “well- to do with early developmental history of children, known” and Fred Alford terms me “famous,” I am stored in the right hemisphere. I gave considerable flattered, but must object that almost no one in aca- evidence from recent neurobiological research that demia has read my work; that despite my spending social relations are determined mainly from early over $2 million of my own money in the past 31 emotional alarm systems which are permanent in years on promotions of the Journal to academics, the brain -- particularly from the right orbitofrontal there are few who have remained as subscribers; cortex and amygdalan networks -- and in my next that references to my work in scholarly journals are book, War as a Psychological Disorder, I will pre- nearly non-existent (Reagan’s America received no sent thousands of neurobiological research findings reviews anywhere in America from the 385 review in just the past couple of years that expand upon copies I sent out, and the same goes for The Emo- and conclusively prove that murders and wars and tional Life of Nations); and that only one course in other violence are all psychobiological results of any college in America uses my books as texts. abuse and neglect from the first few years of life. But this, too, like The Emotional Life of Nations, When Fred Alford suggests I should will be totally rejected, because any developmental “engage other minds working along related lines” view of violence will seem like it “blames mommy and must read and learn from people like Alice rather than ourselves.” Our violent social problems Miller and Norbert Elias about historical motiva- simply cannot be psychopathological disorders, tions, I must wonder if he noticed my references to even though murders and other individual forms of their work in my book, much less the praise Elias violence might be due to developmental sources. has given my work or the fact that Miller cited my work extensively in her books and has written that Some of the comments of reviewers above “Lloyd deMause is probably the first scholar who are not just wholesale rejections of my book and has made a thorough study of the history of child- deserve individual replies. hood without glossing over the facts.” His sugges- The relationship between economic and tion that I should refer to Bion’s work on small psychological sources of wars I have tried to begin group psychodynamics overlooks that I refer to to handle in Chapter 6 of my book, where I showed him on page 105, that the entire section of the book economic downturns are motivated sacrifices, like on small groups is based on Bion’s work, and that I wars, and have tended to be earlier in the group- and small-group theorists like Howard Stein and fantasy cycle than wars; I will analyze this in John Hartman have written extensively on his work greater detail in my next book. I have never said, in relation to psychohistory in the Journal of Psy- of course, that poverty is anything but bad for par- chohistory. enting. There is a large literature of studies on how When Alford attacks me for saying the parenting is somewhat worse in poor families, es- Oliners’ study found rescuers’ parents “invariably pecially in families headed by single mothers, who, used reason rather than violence in correcting their besides having been badly neglected and abused in children.” he is misquoting what I said. I nowhere their own childhoods, are being badly neglected used the word “invariably” in connection with the and abused as adults by society. I confess, as a pro- Oliners’ study. My entire reference reads as fol- fessional economist (I published 18 economic lows: newsletters over 35 years, while earning the money I used to support much of psychohistory), knowing The Oliners interviewed over 406 a great deal about how debilitating poverty has rescuers of Jews, compared them with 26 been, past and present, that I am astonished by how nonrescuers, and found that their economic caring so many poor parents are able to be toward class, their religion, their education, jobs, their children, undoing their own abusive child- and other social characteristics were all hoods and evolving new ways of giving their chil- similar, only their child rearing was dren love and independence. Yet I certainly believe different. Altruistic personalities, they found, that taking the $400 billion Bush just gave to had families that showed them more respect, more concern for fairness, more love, and Page 54 Clio’s Psyche September 2003

had less emphasis on obedience and more on tion) and in psychoanalysis (again, I’ll match my individuality. They were almost never sent training with Theodore Reik and his associates at out to others to be cared for, and if they were the National Psychological Association for Psy- sometimes hit by their parents, the parents choanalysis and with Reuben Fine at the New York often apologized. Center for Psychoanalytic Training, where I have That Alford uses this misquotation of my book to taught and of which I am still a member). That my prove I “exaggerate” and show “ignorance of mul- 24 years of personal psychoanalysis did not teach tiple causality” gives a glimpse of how furious my me what Paul learned in his psychoanalytic train- work has made him -- again, I must admit, similar ing (“how not to say much”) I admit. That my psy- to the fury shown by virtually all academics to my choanalytic teachers praise my work (Charles So- research in seven books and more than 80 articles carides: “A masterpiece”; Reuben Fine: “Neither over the past four decades. history nor psychiatry can ever be the same again”) I am proud of. But that I am “self-trained,” as Paul Alford’s vigorous objection to my using says, is simply untrue, unless what he means by the decline of percentage of people killed by vio- that is that I continue to read and benefit from cur- lence -- whether by murders or wars -- is more rent psychoanalytic books and journals nearly puzzling. Both historians and anthropologists con- every day of my life. sistently use percentage of population to compare homicide and suicide rates and severity of wars. Just as inaccurate is David Felix’s state- Otherwise, one concludes that a war killing ment in his review above that I “triumphantly con- 100,000 people out of a million population (10 per- clude” in my book that all childrearing moves in cent) is less severe than one killing 150,000 out of lockstep progressively up the evolutionary modes 100 million (1.5 percent). I just do not know what into the “happier conclusion” that every child is Alford could mean by saying that violence in re- treated wonderfully today according to the helping cent years has been “less frequent, but more in- mode, producing “the perfectly adjusted, perfectly tense.” The recent invasion by the U.S. of Iraq, he socialized individuals” we have around the world says, is worse than earlier wars because “many of now. I cannot help but wonder what book Felix us sit amazed at the awesome power and precision read! I must have outlined 10 times in my book the of our weapons” although “fewer are killed.” I still evidence that the evolution of childrearing modes don’t understand. What I have shown statistically is extremely uneven, that only a handful of parents (I even drew a graph of declining murder and war in a few nations today bring up their children with death rates over the centuries) is that you would the love and independence of the helping mode have approximately a 75 percent chance of being psychoclass, and that “parents from each of the six killed in your lifetime by murder or war if you had child-rearing modes coexist in modern nations to- lived in tribal societies, whereas the rate slowly day” (p. 251). I even drew a chart of the six modes, declines as childrearing improves over the centu- showing lagging childrearing modes, and showing ries to less than one percent today in the average all six modes present today. I rather suspect Felix democratic society around the world. Alford does didn’t read my actual book, but just picked up not challenge these statistics in any way, so I am small portions of it on the Internet. He too often puzzled by his “less frequent, but more intense” misses what I actually said. For instance, he calls argument, even if he thinks Elias also says this. the weekly visits of outreach parenting helpers in the Boulder, Colorado, Parenting Place “intrusive,” Puzzling to me, also, is Paul Elovitz’s although where I mention them in the book I claim that I am not a real historian who sits in clearly say the families “choose to be visited in dusty archives and reads primary sources. Since I their home for parenting instructions,” which they have spent several days of nearly every week of enthusiastically welcome. No force, no intrusive- my life for 40 years in the dusty archives of librar- ness, just help. ies around the world (I have to read 20 diaries and family letter collections for every useful sentence Felix’s attack on me for daring to dispute about childhood I can cite), I’ll match my dustiness the picture of loving parents in New Guinea is with Paul’s any day. Just as puzzling is his claim equally puzzling, since he claims to know that I that I am untrained, both as a historian (my teach- cannot “triumphantly conclude that all the experts ers, starting with Jacques Barzun, at Columbia Col- were wrong and that he was right” in saying New lege for 4 years and at Columbia Graduate Facul- Guinea parents are routinely infanticidal, cruel, ties for 5 more years will be upset at his accusa- incestuous, and neglectful. How does he know September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 55 they are not wrong? He is neither an anthropolo- Psychohistory, author/editor of seven books, gist nor obviously has he read all the primary including Foundations of Psychohistory, Reagan's sources by professional New Guinea anthropolo- America, and The Emotional Life of Nations, and gists that I cite. He doesn’t dispute that they said was founding President of the International routine infanticide, neglect, and cruelty were pre- Psychohistorical Association. Several of his books sent -- he only claims that they don’t conclude that and articles can be read in full at infanticide and sexual abuse are to be termed abu- .  sive. Nor does he dispute my evidence showing these New Guinea anthropologists approved of us- ing little boys for daily fellatio (along with the na- tives), some even using them themselves and being The Making and Makers of brought to trial when they brought the boys back to Psychohistory and Psychological the U.S. for sexual use. I, of course, cannot be Society right, no matter how many references I give that this is the truth. More informed is the opinion of (Continued from front page) Melford Spiro, chairman of the Anthropology De- on the project and the book. partment of the University of California, San Diego, perhaps the world’s leading psychoanalytic This paper also aims at providing historical anthropologist, who, when I sent him the chapter, information to those new to the field. It surveys the praised it and said it was high time someone re- development of the fields of psychohistory, vealed the truth about New Guinea. psychobiography, and psychopolitics, usually not differentiating among them. It should be noted that Equally inaccurate, unfortunately, are the concept of psychohistory predates Erik Erikson many of the paraphrases of what I was supposed to who popularized it with his work on childhood and have said by the reviewers. Peter Petschauer is society (1950) and identity (1959), and his psycho- mistaken in saying I claim that most early house- biographies of Luther (1958) and Gandhi (1969). holds are nuclear (“deMause’s mother- or father- centered situation” in “nuclear families”). I devote American society in the last half-century considerable sections to what I call the earlier has ambivalently come to accept a psychological “gynarchy” that brought up children, made up of approach to personal issues and society. Psychol- mothers, grandmothers, aunts, and other women -- ogy has become a part of American consciousness to the main exclusion of fathers -- which was the to the point where the language of psychology per- rule in the past and remains the rule for much of meates our society. For example, ego, id, identity, the world today. I nowhere said that Reagan’s post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), superego, autobiography proved his mother was obsessively and survivor’s syndrome are everyday terms. In religious or his father alcoholic; there are no less 2003, American troops sent to fight in Iraq are pro- than 25 biographies that give massive evidence for vided with psychological counseling and group these two facts. I did not “fail to credit Rudolph therapy to help avert PTSD. Binion with developing the concept of traumatic The psychosocial approach is a powerful repetition as used extensively in this volume.” I instrument of understanding our society. It concen- elsewhere have written admiringly of Binion’s trates on the "why" of history and current events, traumatic repetition concept; only since he refuses especially the difference between stated intention (good-naturedly, since he is both a good friend and and actual behavior. Childhood, creativity, dreams, a member of the editorial board of the Journal) to group dynamics (and fantasies), mechanisms of consider childhood trauma as of any importance psychic defense, psychobiography, and psycho- and only considers adult trauma in history, I do not politics are some primary areas of research. Since cite him in this book in this respect. The sole accu- applied psychoanalysis’ nascent beginnings early sation of “careless errors” I do admit to is misspell- in the last century, scholars, psychotherapists, and ing “Davis” once in a footnote (I spelled it authors have used the instruments of psychological “David”). But I’m not perfect. That’s the only insight applied to societal and institutional issues word any of my reviewers could find misspelled. to provide a depth of knowledge not otherwise at- One word out of 250,000. Not perfect, I admit. tainable. Lloyd deMause is Director of the Institute The early practitioners were European psy- for Psychohistory, Editor of the Journal of chiatrists and psychoanalysts who were steeped in Page 56 Clio’s Psyche September 2003 a profound historical sense leading them to regu- Otto Pflanze, entitled “Toward a Psychoanalytic larly use historical examples. Freud and his circle Interpretation of Bismarck” (Vol. 77 No. 2, 1972: did rudimentary psychobiographical and psycho- 419-444). In 1964-1965, the Wellfleet Group was historical studies. His work on da Vinci, Moses, established on Cape Cod, and, to the best of my and Wilson is thought-provoking but flawed. knowledge, it continues to meet under the direction Early advocates of the psychosocial paradigm of Robert Jay Lifton as a select, by-invitation-only sometimes chose historical subjects to avoid speak- group. ing or writing directly about patients who were In the middle of October 1976, the first known within the tight Viennese community. national conference of psychohistorians was held Their initial studies tended to be couched in techni- at Stockton State College in New Jersey. It was cal psychoanalytic language and were based on organized by the late Professor William J. Gilmore theory rather than in-depth historical research. Hit- (1945-1999), psychohistory’s bibliographer (see ler's domination of continental Europe led to the Psychohistorical Inquiry: A Comprehensive Re- dispersal of many of these talented individuals to search Bibliography, 1984). There were heated England and the Americas. debates over the relationship of psychohistory to Not long after Freud’s ideas became known history, political science, psychology, psycho- to Americans, there were some U.S.-born advo- analysis, psychiatry, sociology, and other disci- cates of applied psychoanalysis, three of whom I plines. will mention here. The distinguished Luther The organized fields of psychohistory and scholar, Preserved Smith (1880-1941), published political psychology came into existence with the Luther’s Table Talk: A Critical Study (1907) and establishment of a variety of groups in the United “Luther’s Early Development in the Light of Psy- States. These included the Group for the Use of cho-analysis” in the American Journal of Psychol- Psychology in History (GUPH; 1972-meets inter- ogy (1913). L. Pierce Clark (1870-1933) and Har- mittently), the International Psychohistorical Asso- old Lasswell (1902-1978) are two other good ex- ciation (IPA; 1977-), and the International Society amples of this phenomenon. Late in his life, Clark for Political Psychology (ISPP; 1977-). Today the commonly used the term psychohistory and wrote ISPP, IPA, and GUPH have been joined by a vari- on Alexander the Great, Lincoln, and Napoleon, ety of other organizations including the Bay Area while Lasswell wrote Psychopathology and Poli- Psychobiography Working Group (early 1990s-); tics (1930) and much else of value. the Center for the Study of Mind and Human Inter- In the two decades after World War II, action (CSMHI; 1987-); the Psychohistory Forum depth psychology and a profound concern for psy- (1983-); the Group for the Psychohistorical Study chosocial issues became well-established in the of Film (1989-); the University of California Inter- United States, leading to the important work of disciplinary Psychoanalytic Consortium (1991-); Eric Erikson, Robert Jay Lifton, Richard Hofstad- and the Association for the Psychoanalysis of Cul- ter, and a variety of other scholars. In this period, ture and Society (APCS; 1995-). Some of these studies tended to focus on Hitler, the Nazis, and organizations are large, while others are small. Richard Nixon. Practitioners such as Bruce Most meet annually or more often. Around the Mazlish and Robert Waite inclined to identify world there are other active psychohistorical or- themselves as historians rather than as psychohis- ganizations, especially in Germany and France. torians while Erik Erikson was never comfortable In addition to groups there are numerous using the term psychohistory, which many wrongly publications including the Journal of Psychohis- believe he originated. The Harvard historian Wil- tory, Political Psychology (published by the ISPP), liam Langer, whose psychiatrist brother Walter had Psychoanalysis and History, Mind and Human In- done a pioneering, classified intelligence study of teraction (published by the CSMHI), Psychohis- Adolph Hitler during World War II, in his 1957 tory: The Newsletter of the International Psycho- presidential address to the American Historical As- historical Association, Mentalities/Mentalités, sociation referred to psychohistory as the "Next Clio’s Psyche (published by the Psychohistory Assignment." The response was mixed, with both Forum; 1994-), and the Journal for the Psycho- positive responses and the rolling of eyes and mut- analysis of Culture and Society (JPCS) (published terings of disagreement. Also, the American His- by APCS), which in 2004 is changing its name to torical Review published some explicitly psycho- Psychoanalysis, Culture, & Society (PCS). As analytic, psychohistorical studies, such as one by with all things humans create, psychohistorical in- September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 57 stitutions do not last forever. The GUPH Newslet- faculty member, I entered psychoanalytic training ter (1972-1976) was transformed into the larger, and soon connected with those doing psychosocial much more impressive, The Psychohistory Review work in the New York area. which continued the Newsletter’s numbering. Re- I also have been a participant-observer in grettably, The Psychohistory Review (1976-1999), the development of psychohistory, psychobiogra- an academically very successful publication, de- phy, and political psychology as organized fields cided to cease publication despite a solid sub- from the first workshop of the Institute for Psycho- scriber base of libraries and individuals. Also, the history in 1975, to the Stockton conference in Center for the Study of Violence and Human Sur- 1976, to the IPA and ISPP conferences in Manhat- vival (1985-2002) closed a year after its founder, tan in 1977, right down to the present. My organ- Robert Jay Lifton, left, and it has been replaced at izational leadership has been much more in the John Jay by the Center on Terrorism and Public field of psychohistory rather than in political psy- Safety, led by Charles Strozier. chology, though I founded and have co-lead since Psychohistory has found its way into the 1988, with Herbert Barry of the University of Pitts- classroom at the undergraduate, graduate, and post- burgh, the Childhood, Personality, and Psychology graduate levels. Most commonly, classes are of- of Presidents and Presidential Candidates Research fered at major universities such as Harvard, though Group. My leadership positions have included not necessarily under the title of “Psychohistory.” president of the IPA (1988-1990) and founder For example, future U.S. Vice Pres. Al Gore took (1983) and director of the Psychohistory Forum. Erikson’s life cycle course, where he wrote a paper As a historian of the movement, I have sought to on his father, U.S. Sen. Albert Gore. However, consistently maintain good relations with all peo- unlike with other historical paradigms such as eco- ple associated with it regardless of their particular nomic and social history, there has not been the views. As Editor of Clio’s Psyche I have invited systematic training of a new generation of psycho- articles from scholars of the most varying view- historians in the graduate schools. Peter Loewen- points, challenging them to write in jargon-free berg’s excellent though small program at UCLA is English. an exception to this generalization, but, regrettably, Psychohistory, psychobiography, and po- a number of its graduates have had trouble finding litical psychology are but some of a series of university positions. At the undergraduate level, a mostly interrelated movements, including social variety of universities and colleges offer courses. history and women's history, that blossomed in the For example, at Ramapo College there have been 1960s and 1970s, adding to our collective knowl- psychohistorical courses on the history of child- edge. At the minimum, each represents a lens to be hood, the life cycle, death and dying, psychobiog- added to the microscopes and telescopes of knowl- raphy, presidents, assassination, the Holocaust, and edge and, at the maximum, a major paradigm of terrorism. the 20th century. At Ramapo College, while teach- It has been my good fortune to spend over ing some psychohistory and political psychology three-and-a-half decades as a participant-observer courses, I have also been able to apply the insights in psychohistory, even though my initial introduc- of my field to more traditional historical fields. tion to the field as a graduate student in the Rutgers Over nine years ago, Clio’s Psyche began History Department was jarring. In 1963 a bright the process of doing in-depth interviews with some fellow student in a “Renaissance and Reformation” of the pioneers of the psychosocial paradigm. As of class was denounced in the strongest terms for this date, we have published 44 interviews with wanting to do psychohistory and contemptuously distinguished scholars. Those featured include such told that if he persisted in this folly he should go to accomplished individuals as Rudolph Binion Harvard to do it. Five years later, I was thrilled (Brandeis), Lloyd deMause (Institute for Psycho- when I read my first psychohistorical book, by history and Journal of Psychohistory), John Demos Frank Manual (1911-2003) on Sir Isaac Newton. (Yale), Peter Gay (Yale), Betty Glad (South Caro- This occurred when I was a young professor at lina), Lynn Hunt (Stanford), Norman Itzkowitz Temple University from 1965-1971, where a col- (Princeton), Sudhir Kakar (author and psychoana- league with some psychoanalytic training intro- lyst), Robert Jay Lifton (Harvard), Peter Loewen- duced me to psychoanalysis and the major psycho- berg (UCLA), Bruce Mazlish (MIT), Stanley Ren- historical/psychopolitical works. Two years after shon (CUNY Graduate Center), William McKinley coming to Ramapo College in 1971 as a founding Runyan (UC-Berkeley), Howard Stein Page 58 Clio’s Psyche September 2003

(Oklahoma), Charles Strozier (CUNY Graduate history and definitions of it are two important is- Center), and Vamik Volkan (Virginia). More inter- sues, as is the relationship of psychohistory to the views must be conducted, for example, with schol- university and the psychoanalytic institute. Funda- ars such as Robert Coles, Doris Kearns Goodwin, mentalism, violence, and war are some common Fred Greenstein, and John E. Mack, and especially issues discussed with leading psychohistorians. in the field of political psychology. We welcome They are also asked for ideas as to how to do better interviews by colleagues. psychohistorical work and how to recruit and edu- In looking over our full list of interviewees cate the next generation of psychohistorians. and their affiliations, several things should be kept This is a history of the creators of psycho- in mind. Some have achieved great distinction, for history and of the field itself, which, when pub- example, Lynn Hunt, Eugen Weber Professor of lished, will greatly add to our record of the move- Modern European History at Stanford, was the ment. It is an analysis of the work and thoughts of 2002 president of the American Historical Associa- some enormously creative and innovative individu- tion, while Sudhir Kakar was awarded a Goethe als, including their current views of the movement Medal and visiting professorships at a number of they created and its future. Further, it is an oppor- the world’s most distinguished universities. A few tunity to show the relationship between the person- have died and many have retired or will be retiring alities of the innovators and some of their ideas and shortly. Further, although psychohistory, psycho- decisions. Consequently, this research project is far biography, and political psychology are alive, well, more than a collection of interviews of distin- and growing, many of the pioneers, finest practitio- guished individuals! It is a psychosocial study of ners, and nurturers are aging, retiring, struggling ideas and movements, examining them in detail, as with diseases, and ultimately dying. In Clio’s Psy- well as their acceptance. In it I probe the back- che we have already published 17 obituaries of grounds, educations, personalities, and writings of scholars lost to the field. these innovators. Finally, I examine the challenges confronting advocates of the psychosocial para- Though it is early for conclusions, there are digm. Most especially in this regard, is the ten- a few things that are already clear. Unlike prodi- dency to kill the messenger, while taking the mes- gies in math and physics, psychohistorians do not sage and accepting the language, but not the real make their great discoveries in their 20s, but later insights, of psychoanalysis, psychohistory, and po- in life as they accumulate more knowledge. In litical psychology. In publishing this preliminary most cases, scholars have come to psychohistory study, my hope is that readers will join in this en- not because of contact with Erik Erikson, Lloyd deavor by sharing their recollections, interviewing deMause, Peter Gay, Alexander George, Betty major contributors, and bringing manuscripts docu- Glad, Harold Lasswell, Robert Jay Lifton, Peter menting the movement to our attention. Finally, Loewenberg, Elizabeth Marvick, Vamik Volkan, the major result of the project will be the book, and other well-known contributors to the field, but Pioneers of Insight: The Making and Makers of a on their own as they tackle historical problems Psychological Society. which benefit from psychological insight. Women are not quantitatively well-represented in the psy- Paul H. Elovitz, PhD, is Editor of this chohistorical community with the exception of the publication and may be contacted at International Society of Political Psychology .  which was founded by a woman and which has had a number of different women presidents. Psychobiography of The Project is a psychosocial study work- ing to answer questions about the background, Brazil's "Son": Lula da Silva common characteristics, education, psychology, Ted Goertzel and beliefs of those who have made significant Rutgers University contributions to psychohistory. It delves into ques- tions about their social classes, parents, parental Review of Denise Paraná, Lula: O Filho do Brasil identification, siblings, birth order, education, and (Lula: Brazil's Son). São Paulo: Editora Funda- much more. It wants to know what brought people ção Perseu Abramo, 2002. Portuguese, ISBN to psychohistory, what books they read, who men- 8586469742, 527 pages, $35.00 Brazilian Reais tored them, and what special training enabled them ($12.00 U.S.). to do psychohistory well. Their images of psycho- September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 59

Brazilians are not accustomed to books that the Silva family well. They lived in terrible pov- reveal intimate details of the lives of their political erty in the Brazilian northeast, buying rice only leaders. This is too bad, because Brazilian political when they were too sick to digest manioc flour; history is full of colorful personalities and dramatic walking to the river to wash their clothes; and hav- events that cry out for psychological interpretation. ing no shoes, electricity, or household appliances Luis Carlos Prestes' quixotic march into the jungle other than a wood stove. at the head of a column of Communist revolution- The Brazilian poor feel they know that aries inspired a generation of would-be revolution- Lula understands them because he was one of aries, but no psychobiographer has probed his mar- them. They are inspired by the fact that he over- tyr complex. Nor have depth psychologists dis- came terrible obstacles to become the leader of the sected Jânio Quadros' surprise resignation from the nation. Although Lula is the leader of a leftist party presidency in 1961 or the bizarre family conflicts that focuses on the social forces that oppress the that sabotaged the Collor de Mello administration poor, his life story is that of a self-made man who in the early 1990s. Although he is a psychiatrist, rose above poverty through individual initiative. Eduardo Mascarenhas managed to write 125 pages His saga is Brazil's version of a Horatio Alger about former President Getulio Vargas without story. analyzing his personality or exploring the reasons for his suicide. This tension between individual achieve- ment and social change is an important theme of Denise Paraná's study of Brazil's new Paraná's remarkable book. To solve it, she devel- president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, may shatter ops the concept of the culture of transformation as the Brazilian proscription against serious bio- the alternative to the culture of poverty. The cul- graphical inquiry. Written originally as a doctoral ture of poverty is characterized by fatalism and dissertation at the University of São Paulo, Lula: O hopelessness, by a focus on immediate gratification Filho do Brasil had modest impact when it was instead of on plans for the future, by a profound first published by Xamã in 1996. But Lula has feeling of alienation from society. Growing up been elected president, and a new edition is promi- impoverished in the northeast, Lula's family ex- nently displayed in all the bookstores. In it, Paraná perienced all of these feelings. But they were able explores Lula's private and emotional life in detail to transform their alienation into a struggle for per- and even draws explicitly on psychoanalytic con- sonal improvement and social change. cepts to probe his unconscious mind. Paraná is well prepared for the task, having done postgradu- Lula's escape from poverty began when his ate study at Cambridge University in England after mother made a courageous decision to sell her her doctoral work in Brazil. She draws widely on meager belongings, load her children onto the back American and European psychological and anthro- of a truck, and move from the impoverished north- pological theories. east to the southern state of São Paulo. The 13-day journey was an adventure for Lula and the other Lula: Brazil's Son is modeled on Oscar children, but a daring plunge into the unknown for Lewis' classic The Children of Sanchez: Autobiog- a mother with limited education and almost no re- raphy of a Mexican Family. It could have been ti- sources. Lula's father was already living in São tled Dona Lindu's Children: Autobiography of a Paulo with his new family. Working as a long- Brazilian Family. The leading figure in the family shoreman, he had barely enough income to support is Dona Lindu, Lula's mother, not his father, who one family, let alone two. All of Dona Lindu’s abandoned the family soon after Lula was born. children had to work. Lula's father had eight children with Lula’s mother and then ran off to São Paulo to start another large São Paulo beckoned because Brazilian family with his wife's cousin. The book contains capitalism was booming there, and workers could valuable transcriptions of extensive interviews with get much higher wages than in the northeast. By Lula and several of his siblings, which Paraná con- working very hard, Lula could afford to go to ducted in the early 1990s. The Silvas were very school and get trained as a lathe mechanic. This cooperative because Paraná had served as an advi- got him skilled jobs in the auto industry, which had sor in Lula's political campaigns. been built by multinational corporations. Skilled labor was scarce, and the multinationals preferred Oscar Lewis' concept of the culture of pov- to negotiate with the labor unions rather than ask erty has been criticized by American scholars for the military government to repress their own work- "blaming the victim," but Paraná found that it fit ers. Lula succeeded as a labor leader because he Page 60 Clio’s Psyche September 2003 put aside leftist ideology, which he knew well from strength, his sexual prowess, and his ability to earn an older brother who was a Communist Party mili- enough to support two families and various girl- tant. Lula focused on bread-and-butter unionism, friends (albeit inadequately). Challenging his fa- an approach that the establishment in São Paulo ther in these areas would have been difficult, and was willing to accept. disloyal to his mother. So Lula threw himself into The growth of Brazilian capitalism gave studying, something that his father had always op- Lula the opportunity to break from the culture of posed. His father insisted that all his children work poverty, but how did he get the psychological as early and as much as possible. He apparently strength? Here is where Paraná turns to psycho- feared that his authority would be undermined if analytical theory. She does so apologetically, re- his children learned to read while he could not. He peatedly warning the reader that her psychohistori- also humiliated Lula and his siblings, in compari- cal speculations are just hypotheses that cannot be son to his other children. In an anecdote that sev- proven. This may be true, but no more so than eral mention, he refused to buy them ice cream many other psychohistorical analyses. Indeed, hers when he bought it for their half-siblings because, are better grounded than many because of her ex- he said, they didn't know how to lick it. tensive interviews with Lula and his family. Often Denial, Paraná observes, was common different family members tell the same stories, but among emigrants from the northeast. Instead of with variations in emphasis and interpretation that complaining about the conditions they left and giv- provide insight into their psychological meaning. ing thanks for their new opportunities, they ideal- When Lula was five, his father had re- ized the past. They remembered the positive values turned to the northeast for a brief reconciliation of life in the rural northeast, minimizing the hard- with his mother, a visit that left her pregnant once ships. This idealization helped them be more asser- again. Lula and his brothers remember an incident tive in demanding better wages and working condi- when the father was beating one of Lula's older tions in São Paulo. They were proud sons and brothers, as he frequently did. He then started to daughters of the northeast who had sacrificed much beat Lula, the baby of the family, but Lula's mother to help build a new Brazil. intervened to protect him. It was shortly thereafter Although Paraná does not make this point, that Dona Lindu moved out, taking the children it can be argued that Lula's use of socialist ideol- with her. In Lula's recollection, his mother left his ogy is a similar idealization. Because they are so- father to protect him. He felt that he was the most cialists, he and his supporters are not mere suppli- favored, most loved of his mother's children, if cants seeking a larger slice of the capitalist pie. only because he was the smallest. From a Freudian They are partisans of a much purer, nobler ideal. perspective, Paraná observes, Lula triumphed in Theirs is a vision of a world where human need, the Oedipal struggle with his father for his mother's not capitalist greed, reigns supreme. This vision love. This, she observes, might account for the has important psychological functions: It raises the remarkable self-esteem that enabled him to tri- self-esteem of its adherents and gives meaning to umph over the culture of poverty. their suffering. But it has little to do with the real Paraná's observations about Lula's ways of world economic policies that they advocate. coping with the situation are interesting. He denies Lula’s vice-presidential running mate was a having any anger or resentment against his father “liberal" in its classic European sense, as a believer for mistreating him or his siblings, or for abandon- in free markets. If ideologies were taken literally, ing the family. Paraná is understandably skeptical: liberalism (free markets) and socialism (collective how could a boy not resent such treatment? Lula economics) would be opposites and could never be concedes he is angry at his father, but for his igno- on the same ticket. But this doesn't matter if eve- rance, not for his treatment of the family. For ex- ryone (except a few true believers) realizes that ample, the illiterate father bought a newspaper they are idealizations not to be taken at face value. every day to "read" on the way to work, but some- As president, Lula's economic and social policies times attracted embarrassing attention by holding it are virtually indistinguishable from those of his upside down. pro-free markets/privatization/multinational capi- talism predecessor, Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Lula channeled his anger into a struggle to Lula’s socialist vision may help him build a do better than his father. He resolved never to fall stronger Brazilian capitalism, just as the vision of into the "well of ignorance" that his father repre- the idyllic northeast helped him build a stronger sented. He admired his father for his physical September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 61 urban industrial labor movement. If Lula's leader- he is a rather private, inner-directed man who rose ship succeeds it will be more for who he is than for to his prominent position by dint of compulsively any new ideas or programs. His life is a story of hard work. Raised in one of the poorest, most how a culture of poverty can be replaced with a backward states in the nation, he has fantastic drive culture of transformation. and desperately wants recognition to compensate Ted Goertzel, PhD, is Professor of for a profound sense of inferiority, a sense of in- Sociology at Rutgers University in Camden, New adequacy shared by so many of his fellow West Jersey and a Psychohistory Forum Research Virginians. He has a deep resentment of Ivy Associate. A prolific author, he has published League fraternity types, like George W. Bush, who biographies of chemist Linus Pauling and former have the advantages of family name and connec- Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso. tion, money, and the best education. When stroked His paper on "Terrorist Beliefs and Terrorist by presidents such as LBJ, he could be quite coop- Lives" is available on request to erative, but the current President Bush has not . Professor given him the recognition he feels is his due. Goertzel’s forthcoming book, Cradles of First elected to the U.S. Senate in 1958, Eminence Second Edition, is an update of a study Byrd has been at the very epicenter of the Senate of the childhoods of eminent people, first published for 35 years, serving, for example, as Majority in 1962 by his parents, Victor and Mildred Leader, Chairman of the Appropriations Commit- Goertzel. Details are on his Web site at tee, and as President pro tempore. Probably the . closest congressional analogue to Byrd's current popularity is another Southern conservative, U.S. Senator Sam Ervin, a Democrat from North Caro- Senator Byrd: From Klansman lina who chaired the Senate Select Committee to Senate Patrician which investigated presidential campaign activities after the 1972 election. Ervin's folksy ways and H. John Rogers partisan willingness to hold the feet of Nixon's po- Psychohistory Forum Research Associate litical and administrative subalterns to the prover- bial fire made him the darling of the center-left of In the long debate about the impending the political spectrum. However, despite the fact U.S. invasion of Iraq, many veteran political ob- that during their 15-year period of overlapping ser- servers raised an eyebrow when U.S. Senator vice their voting records were quite similar on the Robert C. Byrd (Democrat of West Virginia) first salient issues, Byrd and Ervin came from the an- emerged as the "point man" for the Congressional tipodes, as it were, of the "Dixiecrat" coalition. I opposition to what became Gulf War II. When the will refer to their respective camps as the war actually began, though, Senator Byrd immedi- "patricians" and the "peckerwoods." "Pecker- ately declared a "separate peace" with the White wood" is a word that some Southern blacks apply House for the duration of the conflict. After the to what others might call "poor white trash." The administration's swift and decisive victory, one denotation, aside from its sexual implication, is to might have thought that Senator Byrd (1917-), a wood that's been so thoroughly worked over by man who has held state and federal legislative of- woodpeckers that it is not fit for any use. One fice for 57 consecutive years, would not continue branch of this dichotomy can be traced back to the to oppose a popular president who had just won a civilized master of Monticello, Thomas Jefferson; spectacular victory. However, beginning with his the other, to the rude frontiersman from Tennessee, speech on the floor of the Senate criticizing the Andrew Jackson. President's “campaign commercial" declaration of Senator Byrd came from the humblest of victory aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, Byrd's beginnings, an out of wedlock child born in North assaults on Bush have become more trenchant and Carolina, who was subsequently adopted at age much more personal. two or three by a southern West Virginia couple This article will discuss this complex 86- who were probably relatives. His adoptive father year-old man who rose from humble beginnings to was a coal miner, living, as did his neighbors, a a position of great power. Byrd has shown great hardscrabble existence with large components of consistency in his motivation and behavior and has death, disease (for example, miner’s "asthma"), overcome many obstacles, including his not being and regular periods of unemployment, because of a natural politician who glad hands others. Rather, Page 62 Clio’s Psyche September 2003 the vagaries of the market, automation, and fre- gated that war's protesters with great fervor, and quent strikes. In a state where military service is opposed the vast bulk of civil rights legislation. deemed an almost religious calling, Byrd passed on With the exception in recent years of a relatively the opportunity to enlist in the service in WW II high rating from the AFL-CIO (West Virginia is a and chose rather to obtain employment as a civilian highly unionized state), Byrd's social philosophy welder in the shipyards at Norfolk, Virginia. After remains that of the lumpen proletariat from where the war, Byrd returned to his home county in West he sprang. Virginia and obtained employment as a meat cutter By all accounts, Byrd's first years of Senate at Posey Rhode’s Grocery in the hamlet of Crab service were marked by a fawning demeanor and a Orchard. near total sycophancy to the leadership of Richard It was during these years that Robert Byrd Russell of Georgia and Sam Rayburn of Texas, was an active member of the Ku Klux Klan. He has entrenched Southern Democrats who held or con- claimed for years to have almost immediately re- trolled the chairmanships of the major committees. signed, but according to former three-term Repub- He followed slavishly Speaker Rayburn's famed lican Governor Arch Moore (later a federal felon), dictum, "If you want to get along, you go along." Byrd was actually a Kleagle, a major leader in the After he ascended through the Senate hierarchy organization. Byrd's membership in the Klan did from Secretary of the Democratic Conference to not become public knowledge until years later, and Democratic Whip (thanks to Ted Kennedy's acci- then he was able to brush the matter off as a dent at Chappaquiddick) to Majority Leader, and, "youthful indiscretion." Yet there is nothing in finally, to -- his self-professed goal -- Chairman of Byrd's public record that indicates that he has ever the Senate Appropriations Committee in 1989, deviated from the basic socio-political philosophy Byrd's personal attitude and demeanor slowly of the Klan. A year or so ago, Senator Byrd pro- changed. The predicate for such a change has been nounced the N-word on national television. attributed to various politicians over the years, in- (Byrd's statement was not a slip of the tongue -- he cluding, most famously, Mayor James Curley of actually intended to say something positive about Boston, who reportedly said after an election, "For African-Americans.) When a man like Senator years, I've been kissing your ass and now you are Ervin argued for states' rights, he was defending a going to kiss mine." Thus, with near total success familiar way of life. The predicate of his philoso- in the intramural politics of the Senate and a near phy was a certain paternalism, the "white man's invulnerability in West Virginia, a cold hauteur burden," as it were, predicated on the notion that slowly replaced the fawning mien in Byrd's deal- the patricians who had heretofore managed matters ings with the world. had a duty, perhaps even a Christian duty, to con- However, Byrd was required to relinquish tinue doing so. The "peckerwoods," however, his chairmanship after the Gingrich Republican view racial matters from a very different perspec- "revolution" in 1994. As a senior Democrat, tive, from the very bottom of the American socio- though, he was able to use his position to reinvent economic system. They are frequently in direct himself an authority on Senate history. The Alma- competition with African-Americans for marginal nac of American Politics says that Byrd's turgid jobs. At no stage of his career did Sam Ervin have The Senate 1789-1989 (written with the assistance to worry about being replaced by an African- of Senate historian Richard Baker) "surpasses any American. Robert Byrd, in the Norfolk shipyards previous work on the subject." and at Posey Rhode's store, might well have been replaced by an African-American. Few blacks Byrd is the basic autodidact, with the probably could afford a home in Sam Ervin's North strengths and flaws of a person who started out Carolina neighborhood, but there was a direct com- from an occupational tabula rasa and received a petition for miners’ shacks in rural Raleigh good deal of on-the-job training. When Byrd was County, West Virginia. in the state legislature, he took several courses at then Morris Harvey College. While in Congress, Certainly, there is no evidence that Byrd Byrd was admitted (without an undergraduate de- ever moderated his views, although like many gree) to the night division of American Univer- Southerners he became more discrete in expressing sity's law school and was awarded a degree in them, relying on code words such as "law and or- 1963. However, he never took a bar exam, either der." Over the years, Byrd has consistently op- in the District of Columbia or his home state. One posed welfare, supported the Vietnam War, casti- suspects that this may have been because of fear of September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 63 failure. The results of the exam are published, so What he seeks to compel is not morality, but proto- Byrd's failure would have been legitimate news, as col. was that of the young John Kennedy. Kennedy's Like all powerful individuals, Byrd fears ego could handle the publicity. Byrd's ego may not being marginalized, which, of course, he has been have been able to, which I suspect is why he never to a degree by a Republican president and a Repub- sat for the examination. Many people who do not lican congress. But, this is precisely what the ad- have a formal education feel certain inferiority in ministration did in its conduct of Gulf War II. The dealing with the degreed. Even a person with a Bush administration simply ignored Byrd, as it ba- massive ego like Lyndon Johnson was constantly sically ignored the Senate itself. There was, after on his guard with the scholarly crew than he inher- all, no need to consult any Democrat if the Repub- ited from Kennedy. Byrd's enormous efforts to licans held a clear majority, and especially a De- become an authority on the history of the Senate mocrat as curmudgeonly as Byrd. Perhaps no one are, one suspects, basically compensation for his in the administration was interested in being lec- lack of a formal education. It may afford him some tured by a wizened relic of another era. Perhaps no small advantage in debate but it is problematic as one in the administration was interested in paying to how many other senators would actually defer to the quid pro quo that the way Byrd might have de- Byrd's alleged expertise. manded. Some years ago the national media started During the run-up to the war, Byrd's calling Byrd the "King of Pork." Citizens Against speeches dealt generally with the illegality of Gulf Government Waste say that Byrd brought $298 War II. They were trenchant, pithy, and -- I should million home in the 2003 budget alone (under a confess my own bias -- very much on the money. Republican congress and president!). A vast por- When the war began, Byrd swiftly declared his tion of the political "pork" that Byrd has brought to support for the troops and his silence for the dura- West Virginia over the past two decades literally tion of the conflict. He knew that the charge of giv- bears his name. Nearly 25 years ago, I was con- ing "aid and comfort to the enemy" had led to the tacted by the town officials of Pine Grove, a ham- defeat in the next election of his two Senate col- let of a little over 500 souls in the outback of Wet- leagues who voted against the Gulf of Tonkin Reso- zel County. They wanted a new city building, and lution in 1964. After the president landed on the I suggested in semi-jest that we write to Senator flight deck of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, though, Byrd and then add that we wanted to name the Byrd's attacks resumed and became more virulent building after him. To my surprise, they did, and and ad hominem in nature. It was almost as if he Byrd delivered a large two-story monument. All had been laying in wait for the president: this brings to mind the words of Cato the Elder from ancient Rome: “After I'm dead I'd rather have As I watched the president's fighter jet people ask why I have no monument than why I swoop down onto the deck of the Abraham have [only] one.” Lincoln, I could not help but contrast the reported simple dignity of President A U.S. Senator, a senior U.S. Senator, is a Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg with the person to whom at least a ceremonial deference is flamboyant showmanship of President to be paid. This deference is the oil of Congres- Bush…. Real lives have been lost. To me, sional politics. Robert Byrd grew up with this sys- it is an affront to the Americans killed or tem. He spent half of his political life stroking his injured in Iraq for the president to exploit the elders and now he believes that he is owed the trappings of war for the momentary same deference. Being the "King of Pork" in West spectacle of a speech.... I do question the Virginia is all right, but in Washington Byrd likes motives of a deskbound president who to be thought of as the conscience of the Senate. assumes the garb of a warrior for the However, as "conscience" of the Senate, Byrd has purposes of a speech.... I am loath to think of never addressed the actual morality of any issue an aircraft carrier being used as an that I can recall. What concerns him is the formal advertising backdrop for a presidential status of the institution and its perquisites, and by political slogan, and yet that was what I saw. indirection (perhaps narcissistically) his own status and his own "perks." Byrd demands that a certain T.S. Eliot in Murder in the Cathedral said obeisance be paid to the body (primarily, of course, that the most difficult action to judge is when a by the executive branch) and by indirection to him. person does “the right deed for the wrong reason.” Senator Byrd, in my opinion, falls into this cate- Page 64 Clio’s Psyche September 2003 gory. Why did this man in the twilight of his ca- rently, the post-9/11 War on Terrorism has strained reer choose to make nearly kamikaze attacks on a the production of enemies as well as heroes. For, popular president and a popular war? despite the Bush administration's struggles to put a There is certainly nothing in his long career human face on elusive evil, the Iraqi enterprise of- that would lead one to think that these sallies are ten seemed to drift in a miasma of aims and missed anything other than his reactions to personal af- opportunities. Along with the “Shock and Awe” fronts, a product of the same congeries of deep- pyrotechnics, a human face was desperately needed seated inferiorities that propelled Byrd to join the to emerge from the fog of war. That face turned up Klan, and an acting out of the same psychological on Jessica Lynch. complexes that led him to spend his career oppos- On April 3, the Washington Post ran a ing nearly all progressive legislation. Byrd claims front-page headline, "`She Was Fighting to the to defend the prerogatives of the Senate, but the Death'; Details Emerging of W.Va. Soldier's Cap- psychological impetus for his conduct comes, I ture and Rescue." Pfc. Lynch reportedly "fought would suggest, from that long-abiding mind-set fiercely and shot several enemy soldiers after Iraqi which made him see the Klan as a viable vehicle to forces ambushed the Army's 507th Ordnance defend the prerogatives of Caucasians. Back then it Maintenance Company, firing her weapon until she was blacks, Jews, and Catholics who needed “to be ran out of ammunition." She "continued firing at put in their place." Today, it is a president who the Iraqis even after she sustained multiple gunshot needs to be put in his place. wounds and watched several other soldiers in her It may have been worth putting up with the unit die around her." She "was fighting to the Senator’s fawning support of the Southern Democ- death. She did not want to be taken alive," and ratic leadership, fragile ego, and many faults all was stabbed when the Iraqis closed in (Michael these years just to hear him so forcefully denounce Getler, "Reporting Private Lynch," Washington the president's conduct. Bush's flight was in the Post, April 20). When her photo played on the cov- worst of taste, almost as bad as Reagan’s honoring ers of Newsweek and People magazines, no one the SS at Bitburg. The last civilian leader that I can seemed bothered by a patent recycling of the recall who gratuitously donned a military uniform Alamo saga, or that the "facts" were receding into to deliver a speech was Adolph Hitler when he the fog of spin and PR. went before the Reichstag on September 1, 1939, However, a BBC documentary that aired to announce the invasion of Poland. Unless Bush May 18, maintained that the "ambush" had oc- is totally shameless, I suspect Byrd may have curred because, following a series of miscommuni- shamed him a little. cations, her Humvee driver had made a wrong turn H. John Rogers, JD, is a Harvard-trained into a jackknifed U.S. truck; no gunshots or stabs attorney in West Virginia, a Psychohistory Forum were discovered; she had been treated kindly by Research Associate, and a Protestant minister. He the Iraqi medical staff; and her rescue was a has some psychoanalytic training and a profound trumped-up Hollywood stunt, performed and interest in politics.  filmed after a tip-off that her captors (Fedayeen Saddam militiamen) had departed. Another news source reported that the Iraqi doctor who treated Shooting, Rescuing, and her discounted any wounds and claimed she was given a transfusion with blood donated by his staff Mythologizing Private Lynch (Cox News Service, May 18). These versions of Dan Dervin her injuries as accident-incurred have been con- Mary Washington College firmed by her father who ruled out any entry wounds. The U.S. Government remained silent. Out of the deadly chaos of invasions and With so many conflicting versions circulat- fields of combat, heroes arise to provide narratives ing, Pfc. Lynch has become a vehicle weighted of courage and survival. A Davy Crockett, a Sgt. down with considerable baggage. She has been York, an Audie Murphy have traditionally rein- reported as unconscious and thus lacking any forced American values and validated a national memory of these various events, raising the mini- mythology. Such has not been the case in more mal question of how her wishes not to be taken indecisive contests like the Korean War, or more alive became known. No doubt, everything will be ambiguous, wrongheaded ones like Vietnam. Cur- made clear in due course, though the young soldier September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 65 was noticeably silent about the details upon her contacted at .  homecoming to West Virginia in July. For the present we may ponder the possible meanings of her apparent construction as a female Psychoanalyzing Israel and action-figure. Not another G.I. Jane, which has al- the Peace Process ready been turned into a Demi Moore movie, or a Jane Wayne, as some have noted, but rather a fig- Neil Wilson ure more in keeping with the new line of female Private Practice, Teaneck, New Jersey video warriors. These may be "clever, karate- Review of Ofer Grosbard, Israel on the Couch: kicking protagonists controlled by players of either The Psychology of the Peace Process. Albany: sex. They can also, depending on the player's abil- State University of New York Press, 2003. Paper- ity and the games design, be victims of breathtak- back ISBN 0791456064; 195 pages, $21.95. ingly violent assaults by men with fists, feet, knives or bullets" (The New York Times, May 15). Although Ofer Grosbard offers a sane, psy- Assuming, then, that Pfc. Lynch is a fantasy-figure choanalytic understanding of a nation in conflict, it created by males for males -- as seems to be the is with sadness that I review this book: Today case at least in part -- she would then be a vehicle marks the 10th day of the ill-advised Iraq war of for issues of gender transgression and anxieties 2003. My sadness evolves from the realization that, over castration. regardless of the awareness of the personal internal conflicts of national leaders, and the dynamics of Given, in addition, the recent high inci- societies in mutual hatred, probably nothing can or dence of violence against women at West Point will change. and the Air Force Academy (The New York Times, May 22), one may hazard a guess at the sources of Grosbard is a sabra who adopted his par- the imaginary wounding of the trooper. After tar- ents’ right-wing views, served in the Israeli army, geting her for such aggressive assaults, her com- and eventually became a clinical psychologist. He rades-in-arms (Rangers and SEALS) fittingly initi- entered psychotherapy and noted that his political ated reparative measures to effect her rescue, also views turned sharply to the left. He states that largely but fittingly a fantasy that redistributes the many psychotherapy patients in Israel eventually heroics among equally deserving males. To make experience the same leftist shift in political atti- sure everyone got the message, her rescue was re- tude. corded on night-vision cameras, but the final cut Essentially he sees Israel as a country in was severely edited. Reality or simulacrum, the transition, rebelling against its religious past and whole episode forms a fitting specimen of warfare moving towards becoming a secular state. He com- in the new millennium. We know something terri- pares this rebellion to that of a teenager’s attempt bly traumatic happened to Jessica Lynch, like hap- to gain a sense of identity. Parallels are generally pened to the country of Iraq -- we just don't know drawn regarding growth and development between what and we don't know why. the country Israel and a human being. Israel had a Dan Dervin, PhD, Professor Emeritus of traumatic beginning. At its birth there were major Literature at Mary Washington College, is a attempts to destroy it. This awful beginning can be prolific psychohistorian whose more recent books compared to attempts at infanticide, with the infant are Enactments: American Modes and somehow surviving the most hostile of environ- Psychohistorical Models (1996) and Matricentric ments. The world for Israel, and the surviving in- Narratives (1997) on questions of gender and fant, was in reality toxic and dangerous. What this agency in women's writing. He was born in leads to, Grosbard indicates, is a type of paranoid Omaha, Nebraska, and makes his home in attitude. Originally wronged, a self-justified sense Fredericksburg, Virginia. Professor Dervin may be of always being right may pervade one’s outlook. Again, Grosbard sees this for both the individual and Israel. The Best of Clio's Psyche - 1994-2003 New for 2003. This 175-page collection of The author has no hesitation in employing many of the best and most popular articles from psychoanalytic principles for an understanding of 1994 to the September 2003 issue is now available. relations among nations. The United Nations is for Contact Paul H. Elovitz. See page 34. Grosbard a group of nations operating not unlike any therapy group. Israel in turn is the personality- Page 66 Clio’s Psyche September 2003 disordered member of the United Nations. Israel Grosbard’s four-page postscript is worth always feels it is unfairly wronged and picked on, the price of this book. He employs Margaret yet also feels morally justified. This role has been Mahler's concept of separation-individuation to repeated since the beginning of the State of Israel. describe the plight of the Palestinian-Israeli con- Additionally, he compares Israel the country to flict. They are so merged that separation, and someone with a narcissistic disorder. When one’s therefore the creation of a separate Palestinian early life is so lacking in empathy there is a ten- state, is approached but never occurs. He notes that dency to become self-absorbed and grandiose. The suicide bombers die with their body parts intermin- need of Israel for empathy from other countries is gled with those of murdered Israelis. A recent sui- great but so often not forthcoming. cide bomber actually was disguised as an orthodox Grosbard sees America as usually empa- Jew, making Grosbard's view even more eerie. thetic to Israel's plight. Like the good parent, it They are thus attached also out of hatred. offers security and comfort. The European coun- Essentially, analyzing Israel has as its pur- tries, by contrast, are seen as impatiently attempt- pose the advancement of the peace process, which ing to impose their own solutions on Israel. The in itself appears unending. Grosbard actively en- author notes that, like with a needy child, this ap- courages Israel to attempt to comprehend the posi- proach will only lead to resentment, due to a lack tion of the Palestinians and the surrounding Arab of true empathy and a controlling attitude. states. He suggests the almost impossible task of As one continues to read this book, it putting oneself in the shoes of the enemy, under- seems more and more natural to experience world standing them, and recognizing their pain. May we conflict in psychoanalytic terms. Countries, as do all attempt to achieve that lofty goal. people, have an unconscious. Jewish history, start- Neil Wilson, PhD, is a psychoanalyst in ing with the Old Testament, is analyzed as an ana- private practice in Teaneck, New Jersey, and the lyst would attempt to comprehend the preverbal Co-Founder and Co-Director of the New Jersey life of a patient. The Jewish God is seen as a Institute for Training in Psychoanalysis. Dr. monumental invention, all-powerful, narcissistic, Wilson is Editor of Viewpoints, the publication of never wrong, and, importantly, an abstraction. the NJ Institute, and may be contacted at Christianity is in a sense a regression since there is .  a reappearance of more tangible factors such as idols, a Son of God, etc. Grosbard reminds us that the separation phase of development that we all Muhammad and the experience allows for the same process. The Islamic Community mother initially is experienced in concrete, part- object terms and is not at first incorporated within Jay Y. Gonen her child. Over time she is introjected and be- Psychohistory Forum Research Associate comes an abstraction within us. We can then mother ourselves to a great extent. Review of Subhash C. Inamdar, Muhammad and the Rise of Islam: The Creation of Group Identity. Freud would say that anti-Semitism in part Madison, Connecticut: Psychosocial Press, 2001. stems from the Christian belief that Christ died for ISBN 1887841288, pp. xix + 266, $40.00. the sins of man. If one believes this, one is person- ally saved. Because Jews reject this notion, nega- Subhash Inamdar has written an informa- tive traits are projected and externalized onto them. tive and a very suggestive book about Muhammad A realization of the above offers an understanding and the rise of Islam. His narrative serves as an of another basis of Israel's conflict with the world example of how psychobiography (Muhammad’s at large. personal life) and group psychohistory (the crea- tion of the entire Islamic community, or umma) can National anthems of many nations are ex- be successfully wedded together. The author is a amined. Every nation chooses an anthem that re- professor at New York University School of Medi- flects its deepest feelings. Israel's anthem is fo- cine in the Department of Psychiatry. In the book’s cused on Jewish feelings, yearnings, fears, and suf- preface he informs the readers that he was born in fering, and the cruelty of the world. Grosbard sees the port city of Mombasa, Kenya, where Africa it as the anthem of a paranoid nation. He proposes collided with the seafaring Indian, Arab, and Euro- a major change in the anthem that would reflect pean worlds. It becomes clear that he has been hope and inclusion. September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 67 exposed to many cross-cultural winds that enabled larger than that of the limited Arab tribal frame- him to examine both lovingly and critically the work. What is more, the major polytheistic cults early rise of Islam as a culture that succeeds in pro- among the Arab tribes and clans felt an increasing viding a sense of well being to its members. challenge posed by the universalist religions, Nevertheless, the reader, who by now an- mainly Christianity and Judaism. In the seventh ticipates an exciting portrayal of Muhammad as a century it all added up to a rising cultural, eco- creator of a group identity, needs to be patient. nomic, and military challenge for the divided tribes There are academic dues to be paid by plodding and clans of Arabia. An adequate solution for this through Part I: The Formation of a Group and mounting challenge required nothing less than the Group Identity as well as through Part II: Psycho- creation of a new group identity. analytic and Sociological Perspectives. It is all Muhammad stumbled into this psychohis- written in the style of a doctoral dissertation in the torical calling through a series of “revelations.” behavioral sciences. These chapters provide an His somewhat precarious life circumstances of be- excellent summary and integration of the contribu- ing orphaned and of lacking adequate clan support tions of psychology, sociology, and anthropology to insure his physical safety in the face of clashes to the fields of individual growth and group forma- or feuds served as springboards for his creative tion. For a narrative that is burdened with social compensations. His firsthand experience of vulner- science jargon, it is written quite clearly and is of ability to and dependence on the actions of the value to teachers and researchers. Moreover, it can group reinforced his predilection to seek creative serve as a somewhat abstract introduction to any group solutions for problems which he experienced group story, not just that of Islam. But in the mean- individually. But in and by itself, being in a pre- time, Muhammad and Islam need to wait for the carious situation does not guarantee the generation readers to be properly educated in the social sci- of creative solutions. An added impulse is neces- ences so as to be better able to appreciate the his- sary to turn a person into such a unique individual tory of the new Islamic group when they finally as Muhammad was. It manifested itself through come to read it. The social scientist is not likely to “revelations” that signaled his own dawning recog- complain about the book’s division. The general nition that he was charged with the prophetic task reader, however, might possibly have benefited of forging a new identity not only for himself but more if, instead of the lengthy social science prole- for the yet to be united Arabs. gomena, the author would have delved right away Muhammad’s father died before he was into the rise of Islam and inject more social science born. His mother died when he was six years old insights into the story to illuminate specific events and his grandfather died when he was eight years as they occur. In fairness to the author it should be old. Consequently Muhammad’s physical and acknowledged that he has done some of that, espe- emotional needs as a child had to be taken care of cially with regard to the theoretical contributions of by his extended family on which he had to depend Erik Erikson. What is more, both Part III: The for basic security. The extended family came World Before Islam and the Birth of a Prophet and through for him. But he was aware of his vulner- Part IV: The Rise of Islam, make for a suspenseful ability. This experience taught him the pitfalls of reading that compensates for the earlier more labo- insecurity and the vital importance of the larger rious reading of the theoretical sections. One could group for providing security. At age 25 he married easily sense that the last two sections of the book the 40-year-old Khadija, a merchant woman, who were written by someone who knows this world was a constant, and probably motherly, source of from the inside and whose vivid outlook was en- strength for him at a crucial point in his life. She riched by cross-cultural perspectives. trusted in his revelations even as he had doubts and Inamdar provides the readers with a lucid wondered whether he was insane. With her sup- description of the diversity of pre-Islamic Arabia. port he persisted in his struggles to create a new There were geographic and climatic differences, group identity for the Arabs before they became tribal and ethnic divisions, different spoken dia- united by Islam. lects, and there was a contrast between city dwell- Permeating Inamdar’s discussions of the ers and groups leading nomadic life that prompted rise of a new Islamic identity are three central prin- both economic cooperation and competition. ciples of group formation. The first is that the rep- There were also the threats from surrounding em- resentational world of a group should tie the indi- pires that operated on a politico-military scale far vidual identities of its members to the larger group Page 68 Clio’s Psyche September 2003 identity. The second is that the representational distribution of loot provided justice. Furthermore, worlds of either a small child or the group at large embracing Islam provided safety and security from must satisfy basic physiological needs, safety and tribal blood feuds. A central mechanism for peace- security needs, and the need for basic trust or a ful arbitration of conflicts was established with sense of justice. Following Erikson’s notion of the Muhammad at its head. Only he was “God’s mes- importance of social institutions that would tend to senger,” and through various steps he dissociated these needs, Inamdar identified them as a free himself from any links that would imply favoritism economy, police and army, and a legal system, re- toward any particular tribe or clan. To insure jus- spectively. The third principle, following Freud, tice and a sense of trust, the payment to support the was that an effective leadership model that suc- poor and the needs of the general community was cessfully binds individual members to their group included as one of the five Pillars of Islam. Some- includes both the vertical identification with a how Muhammad understood that in order to ensure leader/father figure and the horizontal or brotherly a project one must fund it! He therefore enshrined identification with fellow group members. it in the religious law. The author attributed Islam’s rapid spread Lastly, Muhammad had an intuitive grasp and durability to Muhammad’s intuitive adherence of the special role of the leader. He took care to to these basic principles of group formation. Hav- remain a unique and unrivalled messenger of God ing internalized the traditional representational so as to serve as an undiluted focus for identifica- world of his clan in pre-Islamic Arabia, Muham- tion. He reinforced the perception that he repre- mad now transformed it. He advanced the notion of sents the umma at large and not any specific sub- an umma, a single community whose political group. Vertical identification with the leader was power was converted into a religious authority. It therefore facilitated. Moreover, the major idea of had a small beginning in Medina but it had an al- the new Islamic community with which he came to most limitless growth potential. Divine grace was be identified could now even substitute for his ac- now symbolized by the worshipers themselves. tive leadership role. Muhammad may have opted Under an overall religious umbrella, a moral and for just such a substitution when he chose not to financial solidarity was established that propped up name a successor. As for the horizontal identifica- military enterprises. Eventually these enterprises tion of members of the umma with each other, Mu- gave rise to an empire whose success was regarded hammad reinforced it by special acts such as insti- as a validation of the universalist religion of Islam. tuting a pact of brotherhood between the “Helpers” By tracing Islam back to the truly original religion group and the “Emigrants” group in Medina. By of Abraham the Patriarch as well as of Moses, and and large, though, the horizontal identification by identifying Islam as the original and true ver- among all Muslims was strengthened by the shared sion of monotheism compared to the Jewish and representational world of their new religion and Christian false versions, Muhammad made Islam further reinforced by the sense of brotherhood that independent of Judaism and Christianity and fully fellow jihad warriors were likely to share. capable of responding to the challenge that univer- The book includes other intriguing topics salist religions posed to the pre-Islamic polytheistic such as group immortality and the promise of culture. In essence he provided a representational heavenly paradise for fallen jihad warriors. All world of the Islamic group that transcended tribal these make reading the book truly worthwhile. limits, geographic borders, or language barriers. The focus of the book is on Muhammad and the This new representational world of a would-be rise of Islam. It was not meant to deal with Islam’s huge religious and political group confirmed as subsequent decline, its current crises vis-à-vis well as transcended the individual identities of its modernity and its clash with the West. But the au- members. thor was of course aware of these issues that con- Muhammad also was attuned to the duty cern both Islam and the West. The West has its of the group to satisfy basic physical and emotional own crisis as the result of industrialization and needs of its members. Both power and justice were modernization. What happened in the West is that, needed for that purpose. Power was provided by a in industrialized nations of the post-Enlightenment metamorphosis of the old tribal razzias, or raids, era with a secular and scientific worldview, major into jihad, or striving, as the expanding umma was changes have taken place. Extended family, clan, to fight the unbelievers. Growing Arab armies pro- religion, and kingdom have given way to nuclear vided more power and economic largess. Equitable family, class, and nation state, respectively. The September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 69 author believes that the conflicts that these changes lamic world since their civilization was in decline generated could wreck Europe from within. At this due more to internecine struggles than to wars with point one may wonder whether the author contem- Christians. It wasn’t the Christians who destroyed plates at least some Islamic solutions for the ills of the glory of Muslim Spain; it was the Muslim Ber- the West. On one occasion and in reference to the bers from North Africa. The conquest came about Quranic verse (60:7), “It may be that God will es- when the Bishop of Toledo in Spain asked Musa, tablish love between you and those with whom you the governor of all Muslim lands west of Libya, are at enmity,” the author made the following state- whose capital was Kairouan in Tunisia, to help ment concerning this theme of reconciliation with overthrow the Visigothic King Roderick. In 711 the hated other: “The revelation that the revered Musa sent his Berber slave Tariq, who, with a Ber- founder of Islam fulfilled is the most powerful ber-Arab army, defeated Roderick someplace near message that Islam has for a changed world of to- Jerez de la Fontera and conquered Spain. Then the day where our capacity for mutual and assured de- governor took his Arab army and arrested Tariq struction poses immeasurable risk.” This statement and sent him in chains to Damascus. Meanwhile, serves as a timely reminder that the voices of Islam Kalif Walid I (r. 705-715) the ruler of the Muslim are not only the voices of extremist fundamental- world, sent a spy who killed Musa and sent his ism and violent hatred. The ills of the West are own ministers to rule Spain. So, though it was a surely there. But let us also remember that, during mostly Berber army that had invaded, it was the its Golden Age in the ninth and tenth centuries, Arabs who sent them, and there was an ongoing Islam was actually the “West” of its time and fairly conflict between the Arabs and the Berbers and secular in its pursuit of science. other North Africans such as the Riffs and Jay Y. Gonen, PhD, who retired from the Touregs. practice of psychology to a career of scholarship, The Arabs are racists, as Kobrin notes, but is the author of A Psychohistory of Zionism (1975) unfortunately she does not apply this knowledge to and The Roots of Nazi Psychology: Hitler’s Spanish history. The problem was that the Arabs Utopian Barbarism (2000). He has recently had sent only men, so they were busy impregnating completed writing Yahweh Versus Yahweh: The local women. The Arabs kept themselves separate Enigma of Jewish History. Dr. Gonen may be from the Berbers, whom they looked down upon. contacted at .  This racist attitude still exists and is reflected in Osama bin Laden’s proudly declaring that he mar- ried only full-blooded Arabs, as did his daughters. A Response to Nancy Kobrin’s Civilization thrived in the Iberian Penin- References to Spanish History sula. The Arabs had done a much better job of pre- serving and building upon the knowledge of the J. Lee Shneidman ancient Hellenistic world than had Christian Adelphi University Europe. Spain became a great center of science, medicine, and intellectual development. The Mus- In “Psychoanalytic Explorations of the lims had knowledge that others valued and it was New Moors: Converts for Jihad” (Clio’s Psyche, disseminated to Christians and Jews. The Christian March 2003, Vol. 9 No. 4:157, 172-187), Nancy King Alphonso VII (r. 1126-1157) called himself Kobrin makes a number of interesting points about the “King of the Three Faiths.” The Christians converts to Islam and is quite right in referring to were busy translating from Arabic. A scriptorium Osama bin Laden and many Arabs as racists who was set up in Toledo after 1085, and there were favor full-blooded Arabs over converts. However, scholars like Gondisalvo translating Arabic scien- medieval and early modern Spanish history does tific works into Latin. not support her generalizations. Moreover, she seems to base her historical analysis partly upon Unfortunately, right after the high point of the statements of Osama bin Laden and other Is- Omayyad rule in Spain (about 1000) there was a lamic fundamentalists who have ideas about Ibe- revolt against Hisham II (r. 976-1009). It was a rian history that do not withstand reality. North African anti-Arab, anti-intellectual, anti- secular, fundamentalist revolt led by Berbers, but The Muslims’ being driven out of Castile others were involved, including some of the Slavic in 1492 (the historical basis of the so-called Al An- slaves who were quite numerous. In the 11th and dalus Syndrome) was not a crucial loss for the Is- 12th centuries, the North Africans burned the great Page 70 Clio’s Psyche September 2003 libraries and many of the learned fled to Cairo, stroyed the glory of Muslim Spain. My point is Baghdad, southern Italy, and elsewhere. The Jew precisely that the Muslims experienced and con- Maimonides was among those who fled to other tinue to experience their military defeat and subse- parts of the Islamic world. quent military expulsion as if the Christians had After 1037, Muslim Spain was divided into destroyed it. This illogical belief began the mo- 20 petty warring states. Their rulers hired unem- ment that Boabdil, the defeated Nasrid king, gazed ployed Christian knights to fight their battles. for the last time at his surrendered Granada. The These knights were paid in silver and gold coin, spot from which he gazed is called to this day "The thus helping to spark Western Europe’s economic Last Sigh of the Moor." and intellectual development. The Christians even- He [Boabdil] gave a deep sigh of tually eliminated the Muslim principalities one by despair and burst into tears.... His mother, one, with Granada holding out the longest. The who had once been a slave in a harem, did Arabs became only a tiny elite dominating differ- not extend a word of sympathy to her ent African Muslim groups in Spain. distraught son. Her rancor overwhelmed her. That the date of 1492 looms large in the ‘You do well to weep like a woman for what minds of some contemporary Islamic fundamental- you could not defend like a man,’ she ists is a reflection of their ignorance of Spanish shouted at him (Paul Fregosi, Jihad in the history. It is even less meaningful than Osama bin West: Muslim Conquests from the 7th to the Laden’s talking about the “crime of 1924,” which 21st Centuries, 1998, pp. 273-274). is the abolition of the Caliphate by the Turkish Re- I use the word "destroyed" in the Kleinian public. The Caliphate was a shadow of its former sense of feeling annihilated to the point of losing self, just as Islamic Spain was in 1492 or the Holy one's identity. Muslims cannot tolerate being de- Roman Empire was when Napoleon destroyed it in feated. An example of this is the first, for them 1806. What is also significant is that by insisting essentially unsuccessful attack on the World Trade on the fantasies of 1492 and 1924, the fundamen- Center in 1993 followed by the second, for them talists refuse to accept any responsibility for the spectacularly successful attack on September 11, collapse of Muslim civilizations. Omayyad, 2001. They feel that they are being persecuted Abbasid, Fatimid, and Ottoman glory was in the when they lose. secular states, not the fundamentalist ones. Süley- Moreover, it was not I, but Akbar S. Ah- man the Magnificent (r. 1520-1566) is in Turkish med, the Muslim sociologist, who coined the con- called “The Lawgiver.” It was the Muslim ability cept of the “Al Andalus Syndrome” with specific to absorb Greco-Roman, Hindu, and Chinese ideas reference to “regular” Islam (Ahmed, Discovering and build upon them that created the great Muslim Islam, 1988, pp. 2-3), preceding Osama bin Laden civilizations. It was the fundamentalists that de- by at least 10 years. He cites the inability to mourn stroyed them. the loss of the land and a fixation/obsession about J. Lee Shneidman, PhD, is Professor reconquering it. In addition, Malise Ruthven and Emeritus of History at Adelphi University with a Bernard Lewis, to cite only two among many, have specialization in Spanish history and historical noted that Muslims adhere to a doctrine of irreden- methodology, whose books on Spain include The tism -- that any land which is taken from them Rise of the Aragonese Catalan Empire: 1200-1350 must be re-captured and re-claimed. Bernard Lewis (2 vols.). He is a member of the Board of stresses that “For Muslims, no piece of land once Collaborators, Indice Historico Español, in added to the realm of Islam can ever be finally re- Barcelona. (See fuller author profile on p. 49.)  nounced…” (“License to Kill: Usama bin Ladin’s Declaration of Jihad,” Foreign Affairs, 77:6, 1998, p. 16). (See also Ruthven, A Fury For God, 2003, Kobrin Replies to Shneidman p. 203.) This is an ideology of Islam, not just the Nancy Hartevelt Kobrin Islamists. Hennepin-Regions Psychiatry Training Program Finally, 1492 looms large not just in the and Private Practice, St. Paul minds of the fundamentalists but also the ummah (the world community of Islam) in all its diversity. In response to Professor Shneidman's com- Concluding by way of this point, Robert Baer, for- ments, a close reading of my essay indicates that I mer CIA agent, who is also fluent in Arabic, has do not claim that it was the Christians who de- put it well in his recently acclaimed Sleeping with September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 71 the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for those parts of the article, which are relevant to the Saudi Crude (2003), where he writes: issue I wish to address. On June 5, 1967, Israel launched a Kobrin starts her paper with the statement: preemptive attack on Egypt, Syria, and “Conversion is a central concept of Islam....” She Jordan, quickly and decisively defeating all then goes on to argue that there is a very dangerous three countries. From Jordan, Israel captured subset of contemporary converts to Islam who she the West Bank and Jerusalem; from Syria, labels as the “New Moors” and describes as the Golan Heights; and from Egypt, the Sinai “emotionally unstable personalities given to violent Desert. It was maybe the most humiliating terrorist acts, which they rationalize as justified by defeat the Arabs had ever suffered, at least the Islamic faith.” since they were forced out of Spain in 1492 Kobrin then argues that the majority of (p. 88; emphasis added). Muslims identify with these “New Moors” because Baer is referring not only to Osama bin Laden and they share with them strong feelings of shame and the fundamentalists, but also to the Arabs and by humiliation. These shameful feelings have two extension the ummah. sources. One is the unresolved mourning for the Nancy Hartevelt Kobrin, PhD, is a loss of Andalus -- the “crown jewel” of the West- psychoanalyst who supervises psychiatry residents ern Caliphate -- the Moorish kingdom of Granada, in the Hennepin-Regions Psychiatry Training which was established by conquest in the 8th cen- Program and maintains a private practice in St. tury and lost, by conquest, to the Christian King- Paul, Minnesota. She is author of "Psychoanalytic dom of Ferdinand and Isabella at the end of the Notes on Osama bin Laden and His Jihad Against 15th century. the Jews and the Crusaders” in the forthcoming The second source of shame, according to Annual of Psychoanalysis (Volume 31) and is Kobrin, comes from the bad feelings Muslims have currently working on a book on Islamic suicidal about themselves because they engage in imitative terrorism as political domestic violence. Dr. behavior and feel ashamed of their lack of creativ- Kobrin may be contacted at ity and originality. The Muslim majority identifies .  with terrorists who are “rude imitators who think on the level of young children and act out their fan- tasies with the murder of innocent people.” Psychoanalytic Explorations For me, this kind of writing has serious of the Other as problems related to the issues of bias and credibil- Rationalization of Vengeance ity. If one bears hatred toward the group one is try- ing to understand because they are held to be re- David Lotto sponsible for violence done to you, your loved University of Massachusetts ones, or members of the group with whom you identify, it is highly likely to skew one’s percep- On reading Nancy Kobrin’s article, tions. This is not to say that one shouldn’t try to “Psychoanalytic Explorations of the New Moors: understand, or publish articles about, the behavior Converts for Jihad” (Clio’s Psyche, March 2003, of others, even if they are one’s enemies. However, Vol. 9 No. 4:157, 172-187), I had a strong negative it is my contention that if you want to have credi- reaction and felt compelled to write a response. bility, that is, if you want to be taken seriously Kobrin’s piece is just one example of many which when you are trying to say something critical about have been published in this country sine 9/11 the behavior and motives of others, you also have which use psychoanalytic, psychological, or psy- an obligation to address similar behavior and mo- chohistorical perspectives to pathologize the be- tives that characterize one’s own group, culture, or havior and motives of those alleged to be involved nation. As Jesus is reported to have said: “And in, complicit with, or in support or sympathy with why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy the “Islamic fundamentalist terrorists” who are re- brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is ported to be responsible for 9/11. thine own eye” (Matthew 7:3-5). If one wishes to The Kobrin article has some harsh things to lay claim to some form of moral authority and say about Islam and its followers. It is long and wishes to avoid the charge of arrogant ethnocen- covers much ground. I will briefly summarize only trism, it is necessary to demonstrate one’s objectiv- ity, neutrality, and evenhandedness by starting with Page 72 Clio’s Psyche September 2003 self-examination and self-criticism. of “collateral damage” and the soldiers who were For example, to speak of the unresolved doing nothing worse than trying to defend their mourning of Muslims leading to violence toward country from foreign invasion (in both Afghanistan others without any mention that this is precisely and Iraq) -- then I believe that one bears some de- what we in the United States are doing by striking gree of responsibility for the consequences which out against Afghanistan and Iraq following 9/11 have been visited on the people of these countries. seems to me to be a glaring omission. (David The U.S. has responded to the narcissistic Lotto, “Emotions and Ideology,” Clio’s Psyche, injury of the destruction of the World Trade Center March 2003, Vol. 9 No. 4:157-159) buildings, the damage to the Pentagon, and the loss In reference to the issue of forced or co- of 3000 innocent lives by striking out in rage, kill- erced conversions, there is again absolutely no ac- ing more that 3000 civilians in both Afghanistan knowledgment of the long history of religious in- and Iraq as well as killing many tens of thousands tolerance and forced conversion on the part of the of soldiers in both locations, and destroying huge Christian West toward “heretics” and quantities of property and goods. The Taliban “unbelievers.” The very Spanish Catholic monar- fighters and the armed forces of Saddam’s Iraq chy which drove the Moors from Andalus was the may well have been guilty of much but they were birth place and center of the Inquisition, perhaps not responsible for the events of 9/11, nor were the most notorious coercive religious organization they a meaningful threat to this country. It is hard that has ever existed, one of whose specialties was not to see these events as spasms of vengeance, the forced conversion of Jews and Muslims. fueled by the righteous indignation of those who have had nothing to say about the violence perpe- Kobrin’s article describes the invasion of trated by their own government but who are now the Iberian Peninsula in 711 by a Muslim army led able to claim the status of wounded innocents since by Tariq ibn Zyad, who is said to have burned the they have become the targets of violence. ships that transported the army across the straits of Gibraltar so that there was no option of a retreat. Tariq’s actions are described in the following man- Editorial Board Appointment ner: “His sadistic pep talk and pyrotechnics against We are pleased to announce the ap- the West call to mind that of another. Yet Osama pointment of James William Anderson to the bin Laden pales in comparison as a poor imitation Editorial Board of Clio’s Psyche. because he vicariously engages in holy war (jihad) -- he hides in caves and is not seen in battle.” Bin Jim Anderson is a psychologist/ Laden is basically being called a coward because psychoanalyst in private practice and Clinical he remains safe while sending his minions into Associate Professor at the Northwestern Uni- danger and death. Dr. Kobrin is silent on the versity Medical School in Chicago, where he bomber pilots who rain death on those below from has taught since 1981 and was named Out- the safety of their cockpits in the skies over an Iraq standing Teacher by the Division of Psychol- whose air defenses had been totally destroyed, and ogy in 1995. In 1998 he also became a Faculty the naval officers aboard their warships, also well member of the Chicago Institute for Psycho- out of harm’s way, who stare at video screens and analysis. In 2000 he was appointed Associate push buttons which send Tomahawk Cruise Mis- Editor of the Annual of Psychoanalysis siles with their high-explosive warheads crashing (Volume 31) and as such has played a key role into downtown Baghdad. in the special issue on psychohistory that will be published later this year. There is another, to my mind more serious, reason why I find articles such as this so trouble- Anderson is author or co-author of 29 some. This kind of written attack on a group or a publications. Among his subjects are Sigmund nation that is under the threat of having the horren- Freud, the Jameses (William and Henry and dous destructive power of the United States armed their mother Mary), Henry A. Murray, Wood- forces unleashed on them, borders on being a form row Wilson, and the methodology of psycho- of hate speech. If one writes inflammatory and pro- biography. His forthcoming article in the An- vocative prose accusing the “other” of being evil nual of Psychoanalysis is on the relevance of and inferior, and one’s words are used in the ser- recent psychoanalytic theorists (Kernberg, Ko- vice of promoting the massacre of innocent people hut, and Winnicott) to psychobiography.  -- specifically, both the civilians who were victims September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 73

David Lotto, PhD, is a psychologist and psychoanalyst in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, who is Call for Papers a Psychohistory Forum Research Associate and an America as an Imperial Power? adjunct professor at the University of Psychological Implications Massachusetts. He is passionate in his devotion to Special Theme Issue, Dec. 2003 peace and concern for social justice. Dr. Lotto may be contacted at .  Some possible approaches to this topic include:  The psychohistorical/psychological “whys” of American economic, cultural, Kobrin Replies to Lotto military, and technological imperialism  The trauma of September 11 as the impe- I welcome Dr. Lotto’s criticism but I find it tus for 21st-century American imperialism problematic. Just because I offer an honest critique  Bush’s Preemption Doctrine as a cover for of Islam which is not flattering and which he inter- imperialism prets as "negative," he equates it with being false  Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Middle East: and not true. In addition, Dr. Lotto is of the opin- images, fantasies, and realities of imperial- ion that I am obligated to criticize Christianity, the ism Christian West, and especially the U.S. in order to  In what ways is/is not the “American char- offer a point of view that is valid. This is clearly acter” imperialistic? fallacious. Criticisms of both Islam and Christian-  Religion as a motivation for imperialism ity should be judged on the basis of the facts upon  Contrasting American self-images as de- which they offer their respective views. mocrats and imperialists I have no problem with Dr. Lotto’s having  The implications of an American empire in personal feelings about my essay. Indeed, I would denial assume that each reader has feelings about the arti-  Emotions aroused by words such as cle. However, the personal response of the reader “manifest destiny,” “world’s policeman,” is not at issue. What is at issue and of interest is “globalization,” “occupation,” and “em- precisely what such "personal feelings" might have pire” to do with the facts of the matter at hand. By this I  Comparing modern America with the Ro- mean, what might we learn from those who insist, man and British empires: The psychody- as Dr. Lotto does, that I should have criticized both namics of democracy becoming empire religions and that such criticism would have alleg-  The psychology of the “imperial personal- edly led to a more "balanced, evenhanded" view? ity” from Cecil Rhodes to George W. Bush If I had criticized Christians, this would not guar-  Psychobiographic profiles of the Roose- antee that I have offered a balanced and accurate velts and Douglas MacArthur (in Japan) as view. If anything, such supposed, even pseudo-, proto-Caesars ”evenhandedness" towards both religions may  Psychodynamics of the neo-conservatives proffer an illusion of balance to the detriment of who advocate imperialism the facts. His wish for such balance is clearly erro-  Psychologically oriented review essays of neous because it is the accuracy of the information recent relevant books such as Clyde Pres- and the cogency of the criticism that carries towitz, Rogue Nation, and Warren Zim- weight. merman, First Great Triumph It is important to recall the fine critiques of  Symbols of American imperialism/empire Islam and Islamism by both Salman Rushdie and  Using “presidential theater” and “stage- Ibn Warraq. They do not let Islam off, because craft” on television to promote an imperial they consider it impossible to separate Islamism presidency from Islam. See Rushdie, “November 2001: Not  In the age of television, does America have about Islam?” in Step Across This Line (2002), pp. the staying power for imperialism? 339-340, and, most especially, Ibn Warraq, "The  Imperialism in literature: Beyond Conrad Totalitarian Nature of Islam," pp. 163-171; "Arab and Kipling Imperialism, Islamic Colonialism," pp. 198-213; Articles of 500-1500 words, due Oct. 15 and "The Arab Conquests and the Position of Non- Contact Bob Lentz, Associate Editor (Continued on page 74) Page 74 Clio’s Psyche September 2003

(Continued from page 73) porting Members Rudolph Binion, Andrew Brink, Muslim Subjects," pp. 214-239 in Why I Am Not a and Jacqueline Paulson; and Members Suzanne Muslim (1995). Both noted authors were born and Adrion, Sander Breiner, James Booth, Alberto Fer- raised as Muslims. Having had intimate experience gusson, Ted Goertzel, Geraldine Pauling, Margery with Islam, they write from within the tradition. Quackenbush, Howard Stein, and Richard Weiss. Having seen the “emperor naked,” they do not fear Our thanks for thought-provoking materials to Fred to speak out. Alford, Andrew Brink, Lloyd deMause, Dan Dervin, Joseph Dowling, David Felix, Ted Go- See author profile on p. 71.  ertzel, Jay Gonen, Nancy Kobrin, David Lotto, Pe- ter Petschauer, Leon Rappoport, H. John Rogers, Lee Shneidman, Lawrence Tritle, and Neil Wilson. Bulletin Board  The Lawrence Friedman (Indiana Univer- sity) Psychohistory Forum WORK-IN-PRO- GRESS SATURDAY SEMINAR presentation, “Erik Erikson and Erich Fromm,” originally scheduled for September 20, will be rescheduled to the late winter or spring. For the fall and winter seminars we are working to schedule Vamik Vol- kan (Center for the Study of Mind and Human In- teraction of the University of Virginia), who will present “Signs and Symptoms of Large Group Regressions in the World and Post 9/11 Amer- ica.” CONFERENCES: At the International Psychohistorical Association 26th annual confer- ence in Manhattan on June 4-6, among the many presenters were Forum members Rudy Binion, Jennifer Eastman, Paul Elovitz, Nancy Kobrin, Richard Morrock, Denis O’Keefe, Edryce Rey- nolds, H. John Rogers, and George Victor. At the International Society for Political Psychol- ogy conference, among the Forum members who participated on the program were Fred Alford, Herbert Barry, Rudy Binion, Alan Elms, Paul Elovitz, and Jacques Szaluta. The Center for the Study of Mind and Human Interaction is scheduling a November 15-16, 2003, seminar in Charlottesville, Virginia, on “Understanding Traumatized Societies.” Among the presenters are Leo Rangell and Vamik Volkan. For details contact Liz Olmsted by e-mail at or by telephone at (434) 982-1045. HONORS: From September 2003 until March 2004, Vamik Volkan will be the Erik Erikson Scholar at the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. NEW MEMBER: We welcome Dereck Daschke to the Forum’s membership. OUR THANKS: To our members and subscribers for the support that makes Clio’s Psyche possible. To Benefactors Herbert Barry, Ralph Colp, and Mary Lambert; Patrons David Lotto, Peter Petschauer, and H. John Rogers; Sus- taining Members David Beisel, Robert Pois, and Connie/Lee Shneidman, and Jacques Szaluta; Sup- September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 75 Page 76 Clio’s Psyche September 2003 September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 77 Page 78 Clio’s Psyche September 2003 September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 79 Page 80 Clio’s Psyche September 2003 September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 81 Page 82 Clio’s Psyche September 2003 September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 83 Page 84 Clio’s Psyche September 2003 September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 85 Page 86 Clio’s Psyche September 2003 September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 87 Page 88 Clio’s Psyche September 2003 September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 89 Page 90 Clio’s Psyche September 2003 September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 91 Page 92 Clio’s Psyche September 2003 September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 93 Page 94 Clio’s Psyche September 2003 September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 95 Page 96 Clio’s Psyche September 2003 September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 97

Page 98 Clio’s Psyche September 2003 September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 99 Page 100 Clio’s Psyche September 2003 September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 101 Page 102 Clio’s Psyche September 2003

Call for Papers Psychology of the Arab-Israeli Con- flict & Terrorism in the Middle East Special Theme Issue December 2002 Some possible approaches include:  The Nature and Causes of Terrorism: Comparative Middle Eastern Examples  Applying Psychodynamic Concepts to the Israeli-Palestinian Struggle  Factual, Historical Survey of Israeli- Palestinian Relations  Finding Chosen Traumas and Chosen Glo- ries in Israeli and Palestinian Histories  Identification and Ethnic Rituals in Large Groups  Comparative Suffering and Victimization: Violence in the Name of Suffering  Getting Beneath & Beyond Recrimination  The Relationship Between Childrearing Practices and Political Behavior  Women in Palestinian Society and the Inti- fada  Unconscious Sadomasochistic Elements  Mutual Self-destructive Behavior of Is- raelis and Palestinians  Psychobiographical Studies of Arafat, Ba- rak, Sharon, and Other Leaders  The Changing Identity of Arab Israelis  Leader-Follower Dynamics  Fundamentalist Jews and Muslims  Internecine Clashes -- Violence Against One's Own  Cycles of Violence and Exhaustion, War and Peace, Conflict and Resolution Announcement & Call for Volunteers  Journeys to Peace: Crossing the Psycho- Robert Quackenbush, PhD, counselor, teacher, logical Borders to Conflict Resolutions and author/illustrator of numerous books for chil-  Implications of the Israeli-Palestinian dren, has accepted the invitation of the Branton- Dispute for the U.S. War on Terrorism Peale Institute and Counseling Center, in Manhat- tan, to direct the Liberty Avenue Program. The  Changing Views of Israel and the Pales- program’s purpose is to help young people to dis- tinians in Europe and America cover ways of coping and resolving emotional con-  Anti-Zionism as Anti-Semitism? Case flicts with the events of 9/11 through art, writing, Studies music, and dance. Every Saturday, professionals in  Book Reviews, for example, of Sharon’s the arts will teach and help; also at hand will be a Warrior psychiatrist as well as therapists. In addition, train- 500-1500 words, due October 1 ing programs for adults who work with young peo- ple will be offered. Professionals in the arts and Contact Paul Elovitz, Editor clinicians are invited to participate. Contact Robert Quackenbush, PhD, P.O. Box 20651, New York, NY 10021-0072, . September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 103

In Memoriam: Melvin Kalfus (1931-2002) Paul H. Elovitz Ramapo College and the Psychohistory Forum Mel Kalfus, psychobiographer, psy- chohistorian, professor of history, institution builder, business executive, and Jewish intel- lectual, died on February 24, 2002, a week short of his 71st birthday, of congestive heart failure after a lifetime of struggling to main- tain his health. He left behind a legacy of scholarship (published and unpublished) and courage. Courage in the face of illness and The Best of Clio's Psyche - 1994-2002 death was a most outstanding characteristic of This 153-page collection of many of the best and this talented scholar. Shortly after his birth in a most popular articles from 1994 to the June 2002 Manhattan hospital he contracted whooping issue is now available for only $30 a copy. Contact Paul H. Elovitz. See page 63. (Continued on page 49)

Back Issues Wanted Letter to the Editor The Makers of Psychohistory Research and Publication Project of the Psychohistory Forum is searching for copies of the Newsletter of the Group for the Use of Psychology in History (GUPH) and some early issues of The Psycho- Praise for Clio's Psyche history Review. Please contact Paul H. Elovitz “I like to think the [Psychohistory] Review has been rein- carnated in Clio’s Psyche!” Charles Strozier as quoted at (201) 891-7486 or . in “A Conversation with Charles B. Strozier on Heinz Kohut,” (Clio’s Psyche, Vol. 8 No. 2, September 2001, p. 90). “Paul -- It's up to you now -- good luck with Clio. Larry” Next Psychohistory Forum Meeting was a hand written note on the May 1, 1999, letter from Larry Shiner, Editor of The Psychohistory Review, advis- Saturday, September 21, 2002 ing that the Review was ceasing publication. (Published Paul H. Elovitz with permission) "Psychoanalytic Approaches to the American Presidency"

November 8, 2002, Psychohistory Forum Meeting on "Violence and War" CFP: Arab-Israeli Terrorism - Dec. 2002 See page 124. Page 104 Clio’s Psyche September 2003

Comments on the March Special Issue Call for Papers on Terrorism and "Home" Psychoanalysis and

[Editor’s Note: We do not normally keep Religious Experience track of comments on Clio’s Psyche by Special Theme Issue readers. However, after the first half dozen September 2002 e-mail or in-person remarks on our March Some possible approaches include: issue, we kept a record of the next 10 which  Personal Accounts on How Your Perspec- are listed below.] tives on Religion Have Been Changed by Psychoanalysis  Reconsidering Classic Thinkers Such as  “The recent issue of Clio’s Psyche was indeed great, especially [the article on] Freud and Weston LeBarre mourning … superb.” -A distinguished  Religious Development in Childhood eastern professor  Religious Dreams and the Use of Dreams by Religious Leaders  Terror in the Name of God (e.g., anti- abortionism, jihad)  Sexual Abuse of Children by Priests  Psychobiographic Sketches of Modern Preachers, Prophets, Messiahs (e.g., Robertson, Farrakhan, Koresh) 500-1500 words, due June 15 Contact Bob Lentz, Associate Editor

Call for Papers Professor Charles Strozier recently established Psychoanalysis and a new Center on Terrorism and Public Safety Religious Experience at John Jay College, CUNY. The purpose of the Special Theme Issue, September 2002 Center is to study terrorism in ways that are fa- Some possible approaches include: miliar and appropriate for a university but also to  Personal Accounts on How Your Perspec- search for concrete applications of that research tives on Religion Have Been Changed by to make the world a safer place. Professor Psychoanalysis Strozier's own particular area of research is a  Religious Dreams and the Use of Dreams psychological study of the World Trade Center by Religious Leaders Disaster through interviews with witnesses and  Terror in the Name of God (e.g., anti- survivors; his special concern is with the apoca- abortionism, jihad) lyptic meanings of the disaster. The Center on  Sexual Abuse of Children by Priests Terrorism, in other words, seeks to blend schol-  Psychobiographic Sketches of Modern arship and commitment in the context of trau- Preachers, Prophets, Messiahs matic historical memory. Professor Strozier may 500-1500 words, due June 15 be contacted at . Contact Bob Lentz, September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 105

Call for Papers September 11 and the Psychology of Terrorism Special Theme Issue March, 2002 Some possible approaches include:  Initial Emotions: Shock, Disbelief, Sad- ness, Anger, Hate, Humiliation, Victimiza- tion, and Frustration: Case Studies  Fears, Fantasies, and Realities of Anthrax, Book Review Bio-Terrorism, and Nuclear Terrorism  Group Feelings of Victimization and Enti- tlement in the Face of Trauma  The Power of Symbols: Blood (Shed and There are no negatives in the unconscious. Donated) and Flags in the Face of Trauma  The Power of Altruism in the Face of Dan- ger: The Psychology of Fireman and Other Relief Workers Melvin Kalfus (1931-Feb. 24, 2002)  The Psychological Defense Mechanisms of Israelis and Others in Facing Terrorism Mel Kalfus died of heart failure after a long struggle to maintain his health. There will be an  Bush’s Personalizing the Hydra-Headed extensive obituary in the next issue of Clio's Monster of Terrorism Psyche. We urge friends and colleagues to send  The Psychobiography of Osama bin Laden us their memories of this valued colleague, and Various Terrorists friend, and member of the Psychohistory Fo-  Islamic Fundamentalism: America as the rum's Advisory Council. We wish to express our Great Satan condolences to his wife Alma and their children.  Why Many People Hate the U.S.  Presidents Bush as War Leaders  Psychohistorical Perspectives on Terror- "Home" Symposium ism: Case Studies  The Sense of Obligation to Avenge the Dead: Turning Anger into Vengeance  Cycles of Terrorism, Retaliation, and Vio- lence CFP: Psychoanalysis and Religious Experi-  Denial and Disbelief in Facing Terrorism: ence - Sept. 2002 - See page 225 Fortress America and "It Can't Happen Here"  Why Intelligence and Security Were Neg- Call for Nominations: Halpern Award ligent or Ignored for the  Security, the Cloak of Secrecy, and the Best Psychohistorical Idea Open Society in a  Effects on America's Children Book, Article, or Internet Site  Nightmares, Dreams, and Daydreams of Contact Paul H. Elovitz, . the Attack  Mourning and Closure  Survivorship and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Call for Papers: Children and Childhood - 500-1500 words, due January 15 June 2002 - See page 224 Contact Paul H. Elovitz, PhD, Editor Page 106 Clio’s Psyche September 2003

Forthcoming Call for Papers Book Review in Clio's Children and Childhood Psyche Special Theme Issue June 2002  Among the al- Some possible approaches include: ready submitted  Changing Childhood articles on "The Psychology of  What Is It Like to Grow Up in the Modern Terrorism, World? Tragedy,  Growing Up With a Single Parent, With an Group Immigrant Parent, As a Refugee Mourning, Bio-  The Effects of Television or Video Games Terrorism, and on Children the War on  Why American Students See High School Terrorism" are: as a Type of Prison  "Apocalypse  Sonograms as a Prelude to Female Fetus- Now" cide (China, India, America, etc.)  "A Nation  The Effects of Custody Disputes Mourns"  Children of Divorce  "Terror Vic-  Children in the Courts tims"  Children and Childhood Through the Ages  "Enemy Im- Inform colleagues of our March, ages After 9-  Are Children Better or Worse Off in the 11" Modern World? 2002, Psychology of Terror Special  "Pearl Har-  Cross-Cultural Childhood Comparisons Issue. bor & World 500-1500 words, due April 15 Contact Paul Elovitz, PhD, Editor

Call for Papers Wanted: In-depth Insight during Wartime Children and Childhood in The See call for papers on page 162. 21st Century June, 2002 500-1500 words, due April 15 Contact Paul H. Elovitz, PhD, Editor Next Psychohistory Forum Meeting Saturday, January 26, 2002

CFP: Psychoanalysis and Religious Experi- Eli Sagan ence - Sept. 2002 - See page 225 "The Great Promise and Anxiety of Modernity" There are no negatives in the unconscious.

Nominate a graduate student or psychoanalytic Proposals for Psychohistory Forum Work-in- candidate for a Young Scholar Award Mem- Progress Seminars are welcomed. Contact Paul bership & Subscription. Contact Paul H. H. Elovitz, PhD, Editor, at Elovitz, PhD, Editor, at . September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 107

Call for Papers Call for Papers Psychobiography Psychobiography Special Theme Issue Special Theme Issue December, 2001 December, 2001 Some possible approaches include: Some possible approaches in- clude:  Original psychobiographical vignettes  Original psychobiographical  Psychobiography-focused mini- vignettes interview with distinguished psycho-  Symposium of the pros and biographers such as George, Mack, cons of Erikson's Young Man McAdams, Solomon, Strouse, and Luther Tucker  Your experience with psycho-  Symposium on Erikson's Young Man Luther biography  Recent developments in the  Your experience in researching, writing, field and publishing psychobiography  Issues in doing psychobiogra-  Developments in psychobiography in the phy: last 15 years  pathology and creativity  Issues in doing psychobiography:  the use of empathy  pathology and creativity  evidence and interpretation,  the use of em- reconstruction, and reduction- pathy ism Call for Papers  evidence and  countertransference interpretation, Children and Childhood in  assessing childhood's influence reconstruction,  interpreting dreams The 21st Century and reductionism  assessing living individuals Special Theme Issue  countertrans- March, 2002 ference  alternative approaches 500-1500 words, due January 15  assessing child-  Reviews / review essays Contact Paul H. Elovitz, PhD, Editor hood's influence  interpreting dreams  assessing living individuals  alternative approaches  Reviews / review essays of psycho- biographies by others  Woman's (or Feminist) psychobiogra- phy The Best of  Your choice(s) for exemplary psycho- Clio's Psyche - biography(ies) 1994-2001  Oral history as psychobiography  Film and docudrama psychobiographies New for 2001. This 132-page Next Psychohistory Forum Meeting collection of many of the best and most popular articles from 1994 to the Saturday, September 29, 2001 September, 2001, issue is now available for only $25 a copy. Britton, Felder, and Freund It will be distributed free to Members "Freud, Architecture, and renewing at the Supporting level and above Urban Planning" Page 108 Clio’s Psyche September 2003

Call for Papers Invitation to Join Join the Psychohistory Forum as a Research PsychoGeography Associate to be on the cutting edge of the Special Theme Issue development of new psychosocial knowledge. For information, e-mail Paul H. Elovitz, PhD, Director, at March, 2001 or call him at (201) 891-7486. "PsychoGeography is the study of human pro- jections upon geographic space and the psychic interaction between people and geogra- phy" (Elovitz). It investigates "how issues, ex- periences, and processes that result from grow- Saturday, November ing up in a male or female body become sym- bolized and played out in the wider social and Call for Papers Psychohistory Foru

natural worlds" (Stein and Niederland). Psychologi- Some possible approaches: Psychoanalysts Co cal Uses of  The gender of geography (e.g., Creative Pro "motherlands" and "fatherlands") Law  Psychogeography of rivers, islands, moun- Special Theme Issue tains, etc. June, 2001  Borders and borderland symbolism Possible approaches:  Cities, states, and countries as symbols of  The diffusion of law into every aspect of life (i.e., "the legalization of life") Call for Nominations  Emotional uses of law (e.g., legal expres- Halpern Award for the sion of anger, law as intimidation) Best Psychohistorical Idea in a Group Psychohistory Book, Article, or Internet Site Contact Paul H. Elovitz, . Symposium

 Jury psychology  Law as a system of gridlock  Insanity and the law Presidential Election 2000

Call for Participants Book Reviews Role ofCall Law for Papers in Society Psychohistory Forum Psycho-Seminar Halpern Award biography There are no negatives in the The Psychohistory ForumSaturday, has granted January a Sidney 27, 2001, NYC unconscious. Halpern Award to BobSeeking Lentz, participantsFounding Asso- with a legal backgroundof ciate Editor of Clio's Psycheand a, forstrong Outstanding psychodynamic Ralph interest. Work in Psychohistorical Editing. ***** Nader Call for Papers Special Crime andTheme Punishment Next Psychohistory Forum Meeting SpecialMarch, Theme 2001 Issue Saturday, January 27, 2001 Possible approaches:September, 2001 Jay Gonen, Mary Coleman, et al  Psychodynamics500-1500 words, and childhooddue July 10 "Role of Law in Society" Contact Nader's Paul appeal Elovitz, to intellectuals and Inde- September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 109

Next Psychohistory Forum Next Psychohistory Forum Meeting Meeting Saturday, March 31, 2001 Saturday, September 15, 2001

David Lotto Britton, Felder, and Freund "Freud's Struggle With Misogyny: An Exploration of Homosexuality and Guilt in "Freud, Architecture, and the Dream of Irma's Injection" Urban Planning" r 10, 2001 Call for Papers Call for Papers m Meeting Psychology and Law Crime, Punishment, and onfront the Special Theme Issue Incarceration ocess June, 2001 Special Theme Issue Possible approaches: September, 2001  The diffusion of law into every aspect of 500-1500 words, due July 10 life (i.e., "the legalization of life") Contact Paul Elovitz,  Emotional uses of law (e.g., legal expres- sion of anger, law as intimidation)  Jury psychology  Law as a system of gridlock Call for Nominations  Insanity and the law  Dysfunctional family courts Halpern Award  Legal rights of children for the  The law and individual freedom Best Psychohistorical Idea in a  Humor in the law and lawyer jokes Book, Article, or 500-1500 words, due April 10 Internet Site Contact Paul Elovitz, Contact Paul Elovitz,

Call for CORST Grant Applications The Committee on Research and Special Training (CORST) of the American Psychoanalytic Association announces an American Psychoanalytic Foundation research training grant of $10,000 for CORST candidates (full-time academic scholar-teachers) who have been accepted or are currently in training in an American Psychoanalytic Association Institute. The purpose of the grant is to help de- fray the costs of psychoanalytic training. Payments will be made over three years of training in install- ments of $3500, $3500, and $3000 directly to the candidate. The application is: a) A brief statement of 1000 words about the research proposed, b) A letter from a scholar in the field (e.g., department chair, colleague, or dissertation advisor) attesting to the validity and significance of the research, c) A letter of endorsement by the Education Director of the institute certifying the candidate is in, or has been accepted for, full clinical psychoanalytic training at an institute of the American Psychoanalytic Association, and d) An up-to-date Curriculum Vitae. Applications are to be submitted in three (3) copies by April 1, 2001, to Professor Paul Schwaber, 258 Bradley Street, New Haven, CT 06511. Page 110 Clio’s Psyche September 2003

The Psychol- Call for Papers ogy of The Psychology of Crime, Punishment, and Incarceration Special Theme Issue September, 2001 Some possible approaches include:  Emotion in the courtroom Next Psychohistory Forum Meeting  Jury psychology  Children and women in prison Saturday, September  Immigrants and the INS 15, 2001  The crime of punishment  Comparative international studies Britton, Felder, and  Case studies  Crime and punishment on TV  How cameras change the courtroom The Best of Clio's dynamics Psyche 500-1500 words, due July 10 Contact Paul Elovitz, Editor This 93-page collection of many of the best and most popular articles from 1994 to the Call for Papers September, 1999, issue is available for $20 a copy. It will be distributed free to Members Our Litigious Society Special Theme Issue March, 2001 Possible approaches:  Psychodynamics

See Calls for Papers on pages 164 & 165: The Makers-of-Psychohistory Research Project PsychoGeography To write the history of psychohistory, the Forum is interviewing the founders of our field to create Psychobiography of Ralph Nader a record of their challenges and accomplishments. It welcomes participants who will help identify, interview, Psychological Uses of Law and publish accounts of the founding of psychohistory. Crime and Punishment Contact Paul H. Elovitz, .

Saturday, November 10, 2001 Psychohistory Forum Meeting The Best of Clio's Psyche This 93-page collection of many of the Psychoanalysts Confront the best and most popular articles from 1994 to the Creative Process September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 111

Clio's Psyche of Volkan Honored the Psychohistory In honor of the retirement of Vamik Forum Volkan and the work of the Center he created, Call for Papers the University of Virginia Center for the Study of Mind and Human Interaction (CSMHI) con-  Violence in ducted a major conference entitled "Identity, American Life and Mass Mur-Mourning and Psychopolitical Processes" on der as Disguised Sui- cide May 25-26. The featured presentations and  The Future discussions were on the human processes that of Psychoanalysis in the Third lead to ethnic tension, conflict resolution, and Millennium (June, 2000) the healing process. The speakers came from several disciplines -- psychoanalysis, psychia-  Assessing try, psychology, political science, history, and Apocalypticism and Millennial-anthropology -- and hail from the U.S and ism Around the Year 2000 abroad. Peter Loewenberg of UCLA pre-  Psycho- sented "The Psychodynamics of a Creative In- Geography stitution: The Bauhaus, Weimar, Dessau, Ber-  Election lin, 1919-1933" and Howard Stein of the Uni- 2000: Psycho- biographies versity of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, of Bradley, Bush, Gore, "Mourning and Society: A Study in the History McCain, Buchanan, et al and Philosophy of Science."  The Psy-Volkan, who will retire later this year chology of Incarcera- tion and after 38 years on the University of Virginia Crime  Legalizing staff, is currently the director of the CSMHI Life: Our Litigious Society and a former president of the International So- ciety of Political Psychology (ISPP). Volkan  Psychobiog- founded CSMHI in 1987 as an interdisciplinary raphy  Manias and center to specialize in conflict resolution and Depressions in Eco- nomics and peace work, primarily in Eastern Europe and Society subsequently the newly independent countries  The Role of from the former Soviet Union. He has devel- the Participant Ob- server in oped theories for caring for severely trauma- Psychohistory  Psychohis-tized populations in the wake of ethnic tension. torical Perspectives "At the Center, we study preventive medicine for ethnic issues. In that sense, the Center is very unique," Volkan said. "When large groups are in conflict, people die, they be- November, 2001 come refugees, they lose homes and Call for CORST their loved ones, and so they have to Grant Applica- Psychohistory Forum Meeting mourn. Without mourning, they can-

In conjunction with the National Association for not adjust. Ethnic identity is related tions the Advancement of Psychoanalysis (NAAP) to mourning. When people do not The Committee on Re- "Psychoanalysts Confront the Nature mourn, their identity is different." search and Special and Process of Creativity" The Center is on the forefront of Training (CORST) of studies in large-group dynamics and the American Psycho- applies a growing theoretical and analytic Association announces an American field-proven base of knowledge of issues such Psychoanalytic Foun- dation research training as ethnic tension, racism, national identity, ter- grant of $10,000 for CORST candidates (full-rorism, societal trauma, leader-follower rela- time academic scholar- teachers) who have been tionships and other aspects of national and in- accepted or are cur- rently in training in an ternational conflict. American Psychoana- lytic Association Insti-For further information on Dr. Volkan tute. The purpose of and the Center for the Study of Mind and Hu- Page 112 Clio’s Psyche September 2003

Clio's Psyche of the Psychohistory Forum Call for Papers

 Violence in American Life and Mass Murder as Disguised Suicide  Assessing Apocalypticism and Millennialism Around the Year 2000  PsychoGeography  Election 2000: Psychobiographies of Bradley, Bush, Gore, McCain, Bu- Next Psychohistory Forum Meeting chanan, et al  The Psychology of Incarceration and Michael Britton Crime "Countertransference:  Legalizing Life: Our Litigious Society Royal Road Into the Psychology  Psychobiography of the Cold War"  Manias and Depressions in Economics Saturday, September 23, 2000 and Society Contact Paul Elovitz, Editor  The Truth and Reconciliation Commis- See page 51 sion as a Model for Healing  The Processes of Peacemaking and Peacekeeping  The Psychology of America as the World’s Policeman  Entertainment News  Television, Radio, and Media as Object Relations in a Lonely Call for Papers The Psychohistory of

Conspiracy Theories Special Theme Issue December, 2000 Possible approaches:  Psychodynamics and childhood The Best of Clio's Psyche roots of conspiracy theories This 93-page collection of many of the best and most popular articles from 1994 to the  Case studies of conspiracy theo- September, 1999, issue is available for $20 a copy. ries in American history It will be distributed free to Members renewing at the Supporting level and above as well Clio's  Survey of the psychohistorical as Subscribers upon their next two-year renewal. and psychological literature on Psyche Contact the Editor (see page three). conspiracy theories Now on  Film and television treatment of conspiracy theories Contact Bob Lentz, Associate Editor

September 2003 Clio’s Psyche Page 113

Letter to the Editor Dreamwork Resources The Historical Dreamwork Method is available to help the biographer better under- stand the dreams of the subject and other as- pects of psychobiography. Clio's Psyche welcomes papers on historical dreamwork for publication and for presentation at Psychohistory Forum meetings. Con- Call for Papers tact Paul H. Elovitz (see page 51).  Group Psychohistory (December, 2000)  Conspiracy Theories (December, 2000) (See page 100)  PsychoGeography (March, 2001)

 Legalizing Life: Our Litigious Society Book Reviews (2001) Howard F.  The Psychology of Incarceration and Stein Crime (2001) (Editor's Note:  Television as Object Relations We welcome Contact Paul Elovitz, Editor scanned pic- See page 51

Life: Our Litigious Society Contact the Editor (see page 3) Letters to the Editor Letters to the Editor

Nader, Political Nightmares, and Invitation to Join Leaders' Morality Join the Psychohistory Forum as a Research Associate to be on the cutting edge of the

Editorial Policies development of new psychosocial knowledge. For information, e-mail Paul H. Elovitz, PhD, Director, at or call him at (201) 891-7486. Call for Papers on The Psychology of Incarceration and Crime Contact the Editor (see page 3) The Best of Clio's Psyche This 93-page collection of many of the best and most popular articles from 1994 to the September, 1999, Psychohistorians probe the "Why" of issue is available for $20 a copy. It will be distributed free to Members culture, current events, history, and renewing at the Supporting level and above as well as society. Subscribers upon their next two-year renewal. Page 114 Clio’s Psyche September 2003

 Letters to the Editor The History of Psychohistory Clio's Psyche's interviews of outstanding psychohistorians (see "An American in Amsterdam: Arthur Mitzman," page 146) have grown into a full-fledged study of the pioneers and history of our field. Psychohistory as an organized field is less than 25 years old, so most of the innovators are available to tell their stories and give their insights. Last March, the Forum formally launched the Makers of the Psychohistorical Paradigm Research Project to systematically gather material to write the history of psychohistory. We welcome memoirs, letters, and manuscripts as well as volunteers to help with the interviewing. People interested in participating should write, call, or e-mail Paul H. Elovitz (see page 119).

Awards and Honors CORST Essay Prize • Professor Janice M. Coco, Art Award History, University of California-Davis, winner of the First Annual American Psychoanalytic Association Com- The Psychohistory Forum has mittee on Research and Special Training (CORST) granted a Sidney Halpern Award of $300 $1,000 essay prize, will present her paper, "Exploring the to Bob Lentz, Founding Associate Editor Frontier from the Inside Out in John Sloan's Nude Stud- of Clio's Psyche, for Outstanding Work in ies," at a free public lecture at 12 noon, Saturday, De- Psychohistorical Editing. cember 20, Jade Room, Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York City. Sidney Halpern Award for the Best Psychohistorical Idea • The Psychohistory Forum is granting an award of $200 to Michael Hirohama of San Francisco for starting and maintaining the Psychohistory electronic mailing list (see page 98).

Next Psychohistory Forum Meeting

Saturday, January 30, 1999 THE MAKERS OF PSYCHOHISTORY

Charles Strozier RESEARCH PROJECT

To write the history of psychohistory, the Forum is interviewing the founders of our field to create a record of their challenges and accomplishments. It welcomes participants who P Call for Papers s Special Theme Issues Call for Nominations y 1999 and 2000 c Halpern Award h  The Relationship of Academia, Psycho- for the o history, and Psychoanalysis (March, Best Psychohistorical Idea 1999) in a  The Psychology of Legalizing Life Book, Article, or Computer Site [What is this???] This Award may be granted at the level of  Psychogeography Distinguished Scholar, Graduate, or Un- dergraduate.  Meeting the Millenium Contact Paul H. Elovitz, Editor -- see p.

Free Subscription THE MAKERS OF PSYCHOHISTORY For every paid library subscription ($40), RESEARCH PROJECT the person donating or arranging it will receive a year’s subscription to Clio’s Psyche free. Help The Psychohistory Forum is pleased to announce Clio’s Psyche September 2003The Young Psychohistorian 1998/99 Membership Awards Page 115 John Fanton recently received his medical degree and is doing his five year residency in Providence, Rhode Island. Currently, he is at the Children's Hospital, Women and Infants Hospital, and the Butler Psychiatric Hospital. His goal is to become a child maltreatment expert working in the area of Preventive Psychiatry. At the IPA in 1997 he won the Lorenz AwardTo Join for histhe paper Psychohistory on improving parenting List in Colorado. send e-mail with any subject and message to will return from Europe for the occasion. Rather than do a biography of SS General Reinhard Heydrich as originally intended, he is writing on the German protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia under Heydrich's dominance. In the last four years this talented young scholar has been awarded nine fellowships, grants, or scholarships.

Dreamwork Resources The Historical Dreamwork Method is available to help the biographer better under- Call for Nominations stand the dreams of the subject and other as- pects of psychobiography. Clio's Psyche wel- Halpern Award comes papers on historical dreamwork for pub- for the lication and for presentation at Psychohistory Best Psychohistorical Idea Forum meetings. Contact Paul H. Elovitz (see in a page 43). Book, Article, or Computer  Site This Award may be granted at the level  of Distinguished Scholar, Graduate, or Undergraduate. There are no negatives in the

Call for Papers The Best of Clio's Psyche Special Theme Issues This 93-page collection of many of the best 1999 and 2000 and most popular articles from 1994 to the  The Relationship of Academia, Psy- September, 1999, issue is available for $20 a chohistory, and Psychoanalysis copy. (March, 1999) It will be distributed free to Members re- newing at the Supporting level and above as  Our Litigious Society well as Subscribers upon their next two-year  PsychoGeography renewal. Contact the Editor (see page 51).  Meeting the Millennium  Manias and Depressions in Econom- ics and Society Letters to the Editor Contact the Editor at

Next Psychohistory Forum Meeting

Saturday, October 2, 1999 Letters to the Editor on Charles Strozier Clinton-Lewinsky-Starr "Putting the Psychoanalyst on the Couch: A Biography of Heinz Kohut" Page 116 Clio’s Psyche September 2003

 Clio's Psyche of the Psychohistory Book Review Essay Forum Call for Papers Next Psychohistory Forum Meeting Future of Psychohistory and Psychoanalysis in Saturday, January 30, 1999 the Light of the Demise of the Psychohistory Charles Strozier Political Personality and "Putting the Psychoanalyst on the Couch: A Biography of Heinz Kohut" CharacterThe Best of Clio's Psyche The Psychohistory Forum is pleased to announce Additionalthe creation of Articles The Best of Clio's Psyche. Are Requested for the Call for Nominations This 94-page collection of many of the best and mostSeptember popular articles Issue from of 1994 to the for the current issue Clio'sis available Psyche: for $20 a copy and to students using it in a course for $12. Best of Clio's Psyche TheIt will bePsychology distributed free to Membersof at By July 1 please list your favorite arti- the OnlineSupporting levelCommunication and above as well as Two- cles, interviews, and Special Issues (no Year Subscribers upon their next renewal. Call for Nominations Clio's Psyche of the Psychohistory Forum Call for Papers Forthcoming in the June Issue  Violence in American Life and Mass Murder as  Interview with a Distinguished Disguised Suicide Featured Psychohistorian  AssessingAdditional Apocalypticism Articlesand Millennialism  "The Insane Author of the Oxford aroundAre the RequestedYear 2000 for the English Dictionary"  PsychoGeography September Issue of  "Jews in Europe After World War II"  Election 2000Clio's Psyche:  PsychobiographyCall for Papers  "A Psychohistorian's Mother and Her  ManiasThe and DepressionsPsychology in Economics ofand Legacy" SocietySpecial Theme Issues OnlineThe Psychology Communication of Incarceration and Crime 1999 and 2000 Hayman Fellowships  Our Litigious Society The University of California Interdisci- Call for Nominations plinary Psychoanalytic Consortium an-  PsychoGeography nounces two $5,000 annual fellowships to for the  Meeting the Millennium aid psychoanalytically informed research on the literary, cultural, and humanistic The  ManiasBest and Depressions of Clio's in Econom-Psyche expressions of genocide, racism, ethnocen- icsBy and July Society 1, please list your favorite arti- trism, nationalism, inter-ethnic violence, and the Holocaust.  Thecles, Psychology interviews, of Americaand Special as the Issues (no World'smore thanPoliceman three in each category) and send the information to the Editor (see  Truthpage and 3) for Reconciliation the August publication. in South The History of Psychohistory Africa Clio's Psyche's interviews of outstanding 600-1500 words psychohistorians (see "An American in Amsterdam:  Legalizing Life: Our Litigious Society Arthur Mitzman," page 146) have grown into a full-fledged  TheContact Truth and Reconciliation Commission as study of the pioneers and history of our field. a ModelPaul for H. Healing Elvoitz, PhD, Editor Psychohistory as an organized field is less than 25 years  The Processes of627 Peacemaking Dakota Trail and Peacekeeping old, so most of the innovators are available to tell their  The PsychologyFranklin of America Lakes, as NJ the 07417 World’s stories and give their insights. Last March, the Forum