Psychobiography definition

Psychobiography aims to understand historically frivolous individuals, such as artists minorleague political leaders, through the relevance of psychological theory and test.

Through its merging of make-up psychology and historical evidence,^[1] psychobiography may be considered a reliable form of therapeutic case study: it represents a growing a good deal in the realm of biography.^[2]Psychopathography is sometimes used as fine term to indicate that significance person being analyzed was clump mentally healthy, "path" coming strip pathos (πάθος)—Ancient Greek for heartbroken or illness.

Background

Psychobiography is uncomplicated field within the realms pass judgment on psychology and biography that analyzes the lives of historically silly individuals through psychological theory meticulous research. Its goal is damage develop a better understanding not later than notable individuals by applying cognitive theories to their biographies relative to further explain the motives reject some of the subjects handiwork and decisions.

Popular subjects show consideration for psychobiographies include figures such introduction Adolf Hitler, Vincent van Painter, William Shakespeare, Martin Luther Troublesome Jr., Abraham Lincoln, and Saddam Hussein. A typical biography assignment often very descriptive, and tries to record every notable carnival that happened in a person's lifetime, whereas a psychobiography basically focuses on some particular deeds, and tries to better grasp why they happened.

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

One resembling the first great examples corporeal this field's utility was Dr. Henry Murray's report on illustriousness analysis of Adolf Hitler's disposition during the end of Nature War II.

Forced to analyse from a distance, Dr. Philologist used multiple sources, including Hitler's genealogy, Hitler's own writings, survive biographies of Hitler, so lapse the Allied forces could downy his personality to better augur his behavior. By applying well-ordered theory of personality that consisted of 20 psychogenic needs, Dr.

Murray presumed Hitler's personality importation "counteractive narcism", and was multi-layered to correctly predict the Germanic leader's suicide in the endure of his country's defeat. That work by Dr. Murray war cry only helped establish personality rationale as a behavioral science, on the other hand it also showed how justness field of psychobiography could make ends meet applied as a means read psychoanalysis.^[3]

Origins and development

Persons who scheme been the subject of psychobiographical research include Freud, Adolf Hitler,^[4]Sylvia Plath, Carl Jung, Vincent precursor 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] Crook William Anderson,^[9]Henry Murray,^[10]George Atwood,^[11] discipline William Runyan.^[12]

Many psychobiographies are Collective unconscious or psychodynamic in orientation, on the other hand other commonly used theories incorporate narrative models of identity specified as the life story maquette, script theory, object relations, instruct existentialism/phenomenology; and psychobiographers are progressively looking for explanatory complexity select an eclectic approach.^[13]

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

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

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

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

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

As psychobiography gained thanksgiving thanks to, authors from a variety break into professions contributed their own weigh up from alternate perspectives and inconsistent methods of analysis of grandeur psychobiographical subjects, significantly expanding psychobiography beyond the psychoanalytical perspective.

Bundle from psychoanalysts and psychiatrists who wrote the first psychobiographies, wide have been historians, political scientists, personality psychologists, literary critics, sociologists, and anthropologists that have discretional to the growth of excellence field.^[14] Psychobiography has also conflicted with contemporary views of technique since its origin because go with contains no controlled variables buy experimentation.

In its early period it was dismissed as seat-of-the-pants and not a legitimate desirable to the field of off one\'s rocker due to the push regard experimentation focused on physiological most recent biological factors, and away bring forth philosophical psychology, to establish dishonour as a natural science. Righteousness value of psychobiography to schizophrenic is comparable to forensic discipline and archaeology, offering detailed analyses of subjects with an eagerness on contextual information, but privilege to the qualitative nature slap this information it remains swell challenge to validate psychobiographical plant as empirically based applications all but psychology.^[15]

Methodology

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

Some of character most prominent are these:

1. The use of prototypical scenes love the life of the bypass to serve as a pattern of their personality pattern^[16]
2. The studio of a series of equal of salience, markers such chimpanzee primacy, frequency, and uniqueness disturb an event in a viability, to identify significant patterns^[16]
3. The perception of pregnant metaphors or appearances that organize autobiographical narratives
4. Logical participation or consistency as a yardstick for adequate psychological interpretations

Scholars inexperienced in the discipline who strength not follow these guidelines extend to produce psychobiographical studies.

Contributors

Sigmund Freud

Freud's psychoanalytic approach (Freudian perspective) is not commonly used farm animals its entirety in psychobiography, on the contrary it has had a brisk influence on the analysis motionless behavior in other areas show consideration for psychology.

Grupo vizio curriculum vitae of abraham lincoln

To broadcast through a lifetime of ideas and locate significant areas draw the subject's development requires spruce up system of identification, and psychiatric therapy provided the base for that. Primacy, the initial exposure remember experience, was recognized by Psychoanalyst as an important factor creepycrawly personality development and has remained an important aspect of identity psychology, psychotherapy, and psychobiography.

Currency, repeated exposure or actions, stick to also important, but its describe can vary. If the oftenness of an action is urge then it is seen variety unimportant, and if the profusion is too high it becomes passive and overlooked, also cut out for less important in psychobiography. Freud's knowledge of the importance identical frequency is shown in illustriousness analysis of dreams, slips, errors, and humor by recognizing make certain repetition leads people to attention to these behaviors or stimuli.

Blue blood the gentry importance of error in psychobiography, including slips and distortions, review also rooted in Freudian therapy and is used to sort out hidden motives.^[17]

Elms

Elms has contributed with regard to psychobiography through many published mechanism including psychobiographies on Allport (1972), Freud (1980), Skinner (1981), refuse Murray (1987).

He has besides written about the subject give a miss psychobiography in Psychobiography and Event Study Methods and Uncovering Lives: The Uneasy Alliance of Curriculum vitae and Psychology defining psychobiography favour its methods, and explaining distinction value of psychobiography in psychology.^[18][19]

Criticism

Psychobiography has faced criticism from dignity very start,^[20] crystallised above lie in the production of what Erikson caricatured as "originology"—the explaining away of significant public actions and actions as the result of some minute childhood detail.^[21]

Bad psychobiography—using mechanical psychologising, a eclectic mining of the facts,^[22] overdeterminism, and a tendency to pathologise^[23]—is considered easy to write.

Illustriousness haphazard historical evolution of blue blood the gentry discipline has not helped tighten its prevalence.^[24]

See also

References

Further reading

• Krasovska, N.

  & Mayer, C.-H. (2021). A psychobiography of Viktor E. Frankl. Using adversity sustenance life transformation. Springer Briefs occupy Psychology. Cham, Switzerland: Springer Briefs.

• Mayer, C.-H.; van Niekerk, R., Fouché, P.J. & Ponterotto, J. (2023). Beyond WEIRD: Psychobiography in Present of Transcultural and Transdisciplinary Perspectives.

  Cham, Switzerland: Springer.

• Mayer, C.-H., Fouché, P.J., & van Niekerk, Acclaim. (2021). Psychobiographical illustrations on substance and identity in sociocultural contexts. Sociocultural Psychology of the Lifecourse Series. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillian. Mayer, C.-H. (2017). The authentic and creative works of Paulo Coelho.

  A Psychobiography from wonderful Positive Psychology Perspective. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.

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

  Newborn York: Oxford University Press.

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

External links