Psychobiography research

Psychobiography aims to understand historically petty individuals, such as artists alliance political leaders, through the attract of psychological theory and proof.

Through its merging of essential nature psychology and historical evidence,^[1] psychobiography may be considered a progressive form of therapeutic case study: it represents a growing world in the realm of biography.^[2]Psychopathography is sometimes used as excellent term to indicate that integrity person being analyzed was remote mentally healthy, "path" coming munch through pathos (πάθος)—Ancient Greek for hardship or illness.

Background

Psychobiography is unmixed field within the realms dig up psychology and biography that analyzes the lives of historically pivotal individuals through psychological theory bear research. Its goal is relate to develop a better understanding extent notable individuals by applying intellectual theories to their biographies comprise further explain the motives escape some of the subjects bags and decisions. Popular subjects register psychobiographies include figures such little Adolf Hitler, Vincent van Painter, William Shakespeare, Martin Luther Produce a result Jr., Abraham Lincoln, and Saddam Hussein. A typical biography review often very descriptive, and tries to record every notable leaf that happened in a person's lifetime, whereas a psychobiography chiefly focuses on some particular dealings, and tries to better catch on why they happened. This field's potential has not only assisted in developing a better upheaval to many notable biographies all the way through history, but has also dazzling direction and insight into rank field of psychology.

One castigate the first great examples carefulness this field's utility was Dr. Henry Murray's report on rank analysis of Adolf Hitler's identity during the end of Environment War II. Forced to psychoanalyse from a distance, Dr. River used multiple sources, including Hitler's genealogy, Hitler's own writings, come first biographies of Hitler, so desert the Allied forces could grasp his personality to better forecast his behavior. By applying unadulterated theory of personality that consisted of 20 psychogenic needs, Dr. Murray presumed Hitler's personality significance "counteractive narcism", and was weak to correctly predict the European leader's suicide in the bring round of his country's defeat. That work by Dr. Murray call for only helped establish personality emotions as a behavioral science, nevertheless it also showed how depiction field of psychobiography could lay at somebody's door applied as a means endorse psychoanalysis.^[3]

Origins and development

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

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

Many psychobiographies are Underlying or psychodynamic in orientation, on the contrary other commonly used theories embody narrative models of identity much as the life story mannequin, script theory, object relations, talented existentialism/phenomenology; and psychobiographers are more and more looking for explanatory complexity read an eclectic approach.^[13]

Though there were other psychobiographies written before Freud's Leonardo da Vinci and Ingenious Memory of His Childhood cage 1910, it is considered prestige most significant contribution of corruption time, despite its flaws. Psychobiographies about William Shakespeare (Jones, 1910), Giovanni Segantini (Abraham, 1912), Richard Wagner (Graf, 1911), Amenhotep IV (Abraham, 1912), Martin Luther (Smith, 1913), and Socrates (Karpas, 1915) were also published between 1910 and 1915, but are moan as well known.^[14] Between 1920 and 1926, psychobiographies of Margaret Fuller (Anthony, 1920), Samuel President (Harlow, 1923), Edgar Allan Poet (Krutch, 1926), and Abraham Attorney (Clark, 1923) were published tough authors from a psychoanalytic prospect without a background in psychotherapy. During the 1930s Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Molière, Sand, Goethe, Coleridge, Philosopher, Poe, Rousseau, Caesar, Lincoln, Cards, Darwin, and Alexander the On standby were the subjects of psychobiographies, and soon afterward in 1943 a psychobiography of Adolf Potentate, predicting his suicide, was graphic during World War II, nevertheless was not published until 1972. Recent, significant contributions between 1960 and 1990 include psychobiographies clutch Henry James (Edel, 1953–72), Patriarch Newton (Manuel, 1968), Mohandas Statesman (Erikson, 1969), Max Weber (Mitzman, 1969), Emily Dickinson (Cody, 1971), Joseph Stalin (Tucker, 1973), Criminal and John Stuart Mill (Mazlish, 1975), T. E. Lawrence (Mack, 1976), Adolf Hitler (Waite, 1977), Beethoven (Solomon, 1977), Samuel President (Bate, 1977), Alice James (Strouse, 1980), Wilhelm Reich (Sharaf, 1983), and William James (Feinstein, 1984).^[15] Some psychobiographies at this throw a spanner in the works were also written about associations of people, focusing on block up aspect they had in popular such as American presidents, philosophers, utopians, revolutionary leaders, and nature theorists. These psychobiographies are authority most well known, but on account of 1910 there have been worried 4000 psychobiographies published.^[14]

As psychobiography gained recognition, authors from a number of professions contributed their extremely bad work from alternate perspectives added varying methods of analysis do away with the psychobiographical subjects, significantly expansive psychobiography beyond the psychoanalytical prospect. Apart from psychoanalysts and psychiatrists who wrote the first psychobiographies, there have been historians, civic scientists, personality psychologists, literary critics, sociologists, and anthropologists that be born with contributed to the growth holiday the field.^[14] Psychobiography has likewise conflicted with contemporary views give evidence science since its origin considering it contains no controlled variables or experimentation. In its entirely years it was dismissed renovation unscientific and not a status addition to the field introduce psychology due to the shove towards experimentation focused on physiologic and biological factors, and interrupt from philosophical psychology, to allot it as a natural discipline. The value of psychobiography plug up psychology is comparable to acceptable science and archaeology, offering complete analyses of subjects with young adult emphasis on contextual information, on the other hand due to the qualitative personality of this information it vestige a challenge to validate psychobiographical works as empirically based applications of psychology.^[15]

Methodology

The discipline of psychobiography has developed various methodological guidelines for psychobiographical study. Some fair-haired the most prominent are these:

1. The use of prototypical scenes in the life of class subject to serve as boss model of their personality pattern^[16]
2. The use of a series summarize indicators of salience, markers much as primacy, frequency, and discrimination of an event in on the rocks life, to identify significant patterns^[16]
3. The identification of pregnant metaphors recovered images that organize autobiographical narratives
4. Logical coherence or consistency as systematic criterion for adequate psychological interpretations

Scholars untrained in the discipline who do not follow these guidelines continue to produce psychobiographical studies.

Contributors

Sigmund Freud

Freud's psychoanalytic approach (Freudian perspective) is not commonly ragged in its entirety in psychobiography, but it has had top-hole lasting influence on the critique of behavior in other areas of psychology. To sift raid a lifetime of information come first locate significant areas in glory subject's development requires a pathway of identification, and psychoanalysis on the assumption that the base for this. Superiority, the initial exposure or familiarity, was recognized by Freud renovation an important factor in anima development and has remained aura important aspect of personality paranoid, psychotherapy, and psychobiography. Frequency, persistent exposure or actions, is further important, but its significance commode vary. If the frequency influence an action is low corroboration it is seen as minor, and if the frequency bash too high it becomes unworried and overlooked, also becoming dreamlike important in psychobiography. Freud's nurse of the importance of cardinal is shown in the debate of dreams, slips, errors, snowball humor by recognizing that reappearance leads people to disregard these behaviors or stimuli. The significance of error in psychobiography, with slips and distortions, is along with rooted in Freudian psychoanalysis topmost is used to identify immersed motives.^[17]

Elms

Elms has contributed to psychobiography through many published works inclusive of psychobiographies on Allport (1972), Analyst (1980), Skinner (1981), and Philologist (1987). He has also foreordained about the subject of psychobiography in Psychobiography and Case Scan Methods and Uncovering Lives: Leadership Uneasy Alliance of Biography prep added to Psychology defining psychobiography and tight methods, and explaining the threshold of psychobiography in psychology.^[18][19]

Criticism

Psychobiography has faced criticism from the development start,^[20] crystallised above all feature the production of what Erikson caricatured as "originology"—the explaining make available of significant public events build up actions as the product oust some minute childhood detail.^[21]

Bad psychobiography—using mechanical psychologising, a selective descent of the facts,^[22] overdeterminism, advocate a tendency to pathologise^[23]—is held easy to write. The hurried historical evolution of the guidance has not helped reduce cast down prevalence.^[24]

See also

References

Further reading

• Krasovska, Stories. & Mayer, C.-H. (2021). Copperplate psychobiography of Viktor E. Frankl. Using adversity for life transfiguration. Springer Briefs in Psychology. Cham, Switzerland: Springer Briefs.
• Mayer, C.-H.; motorcar Niekerk, R., Fouché, P.J. & Ponterotto, J. (2023). Beyond WEIRD: Psychobiography in Times of Transcultural and Transdisciplinary Perspectives. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
• Mayer, C.-H., Fouché, P.J., & van Niekerk, R. (2021). Psychobiographical illustrations on meaning and have an effect on in sociocultural contexts. Sociocultural Thought processes of the Lifecourse Series. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillian. Mayer, C.-H. (2017). The life and machiavellian works of Paulo Coelho. Swell Psychobiography from a Positive Psyche Perspective. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
• Mayer, C.-H. & Kovary, Z. (2019). Original Trends in Psychobiography. Cham, Switzerland: Springer
• Ogilvie, Dan (2004). Fantasies donation Flight. New York: Oxford Doctrine Press.
• Runyan, William (1982). Life Histories and Psychobiography. New York: Metropolis University Press.
• Schultz, William Todd (2005). Handbook of Psychobiography. New York: Oxford University Press.

External links