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Handbook of Psychobiography
William Todd Schultz
512 pages
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Numerous halftones and tables
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253x176mm
978-0-19-516827-3
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Hardback
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28 July 2005
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This item is printed to order and supplied on a firm sale basis. Items which are printed to order are normally despatched and charged within 5-10 days.
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- Brings together for the first time the world's leading psychobiographers
This exceptionally readable and down-to-earth handbook is destined to become the definitive guide to psychobiological research, the application of psychological theory and research to individual lives of historical importance. It brings together for the first time the world's leading psychobiographers, writing lucidly on many of the major figures of our age - from Osama Bin Laden to Elvis Presley.
The first section of the book addresses the subject of how to construct an effective psychobiography. Editor William Todd Schultz introduces the field,
provides valuable definitions of good and bad psychobiography, discusses an optimal structure for psychobiographical essays, and offers a blueprint for striking psychological paydirt in biographical data. Dan McAdams explores the question of what psychobiographers might learn from current research in personality psychology. Alan Elms delivers wise advice on the tricky subject of theory choice in psychobiography. William Runyan asks why Van Gogh cut off his ear, and in the process explains how one evaluates competing interpretations of the same event in a subject's life. And Kate Isaacson describes a template for use in multiple-case psychobiography. Never before has method in psychobiography been so clearly and explicitly addressed. Those just getting started in the field will find in
Section One a detailed roadmap for success.
The remaining sections of the book are composed of richly engaging case studies of famous artists, psychologists and politicians. They address compelling questions such as: What are the subjective origins of photographer Diane Arbus's obsession with freaks? In what ways did the early loss of Sylvia Plath's father affect her poetry and presage her suicide? Why did Elvis experience such difficulty singing the song "Are You Lonesome Tonight"? What accounts for Bin Laden' radicalism, Kim Jong II's paranoia, George W Bush's conflict with identity? Why did Freud go disasterously astray in his analysis of Leonardo? What made psychologist Gordon Allport's meeting with Freud so pungently significant? How did the loss of his
father determine major elements of Nietzsche's philosophy? These questions and many more get answered, often in surprising and incisive fashion. Additional chapters take up the lives of Harvard operationist S.S. Stevens, Erik Erikson, Edith Wharton, Saddam Hussein, Truman Capote, Kathryn Harrison, Jack Kerouac, and others. Within each case study, tips are proffered along the way as to how psychobiography can be done more cogently, more intelligently, and more valuably.
With its combination of telling about and showing how to practice psychobiography wisely, its inclusion of most of the field's leading practitioners, and its diversity of subjects, the Handbook of Psychobiography represents the best the field has to offer. It will define the discipline, set a
course for effective future developments, and quickly emerge as a must-read for any beginning or serious psychobiographer, narrative psychologist, personologist or personality researcher.Readership: Psychobiographers, psychohistorians, personality psychologists
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William Todd Schultz, Associate Professor of Psychology, Pacific University, USA
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Part 1: How to write a psychobiography
1: Introducing psychobiography
2: Evolving conceptions of psychobiography and the study of lives: Encounters with psychoanalysis, personality psychology, and historical science
3: How to strike psychological paydirt in biographical data
4: What psychobiographers might learn from personality psychology
5: If the glove fits: The art of theoretical choice in psychobiography
6: How to critically evaluate alternative explanations of life events: The case of Van Gogh's ear
7: Divide and multiply: Comparative theory and methodology in multiple case psychobiology
8: Diane Arbus' photographic autobiography: Theory and method revisited
Part 2: Psychobiography of Artists
9: Nothing alive can be calculated: The psychobiographical study of artists
10: Twelve ways to say 'lonesome': Assessing error and control in the music of Elvis Presley
11: Mourning, melancholia, and Sylvia Plath
12: Margaret's smile
13: Edith Wharton and Ethan Frome: A psychobiographical exploration
Part Three: Psychobiography of Psychologists
14: The psychobiographical study of psychologists
15: Freud as Leonardo: Why the first psychobiography went wrong
16: Four, two or one? Gordon Allport and the unique personality
17: Nietzsche's Madness
18: Erikson and psychobiography, psychobiography and Erikson
19: From the book of Mormon to the operational definition: The existential project of S.S. Stevens
Part Four: Psychobiography of Political Figures
20: Alive and kicking: The problematics of political psychobiography
21: Osama Bin Laden: The sum of all fears
22: In his father's shadow: George W Bush and the politics of personal transformation
23: Hunting the Snark: Methodlogical Considerations in Studying Elusive Politicians
24: Psychobiography in context: Predicting the behaviour of tyrants
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