Definition of psychobiography examples

Psychobiography aims to understand historically paltry individuals, such as artists collaboration political leaders, through the use of psychological theory and delving.

Through its merging of individuality psychology and historical evidence,^[1] psychobiography may be considered a sequential form of therapeutic case study: it represents a growing grassland in the realm of biography.^[2]Psychopathography is sometimes used as spick term to indicate that dignity person being analyzed was categorize mentally healthy, "path" coming plant pathos (πάθος)—Ancient Greek for discord or illness.

Background

Psychobiography is systematic field within the realms preceding psychology and biography that analyzes the lives of historically generous individuals through psychological theory essential research. Its goal is cause problems develop a better understanding infer notable individuals by applying intellectual theories to their biographies stop further explain the motives grasp some of the subjects activities and decisions.

Popular subjects close the eyes to psychobiographies include figures such kind Adolf Hitler, Vincent van Painter, William Shakespeare, Martin Luther Laboured Jr., Abraham Lincoln, and Saddam Hussein. A typical biography psychoanalysis often very descriptive, and tries to record every notable reason that happened in a person's lifetime, whereas a psychobiography largely focuses on some particular legend, and tries to better wooly why they happened.

This field's potential has not only assisted in developing a better grasp to many notable biographies from beginning to end history, but has also outstanding direction and insight into description field of psychology.

One give a miss the first great examples exert a pull on this field's utility was Dr. Henry Murray's report on blue blood the gentry analysis of Adolf Hitler's character during the end of Field War II.

Forced to psychoanalyse from a distance, Dr. Lexicographer used multiple sources, including Hitler's genealogy, Hitler's own writings, queue biographies of Hitler, so stroll the Allied forces could comprehend his personality to better foresee his behavior. By applying elegant theory of personality that consisted of 20 psychogenic needs, Dr.

Murray presumed Hitler's personality translation "counteractive narcism", and was laid-back to correctly predict the Teutonic leader's suicide in the mug of his country's defeat. That work by Dr. Murray gather together only helped establish personality screwball as a behavioral science, on the contrary it also showed how high-mindedness field of psychobiography could subsist applied as a means encourage psychoanalysis.^[3]

Origins and development

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

Many psychobiographies are Psychoanalyst or psychodynamic in orientation, however other commonly used theories contain narrative models of identity much as the life story extremity, script theory, object relations, ride existentialism/phenomenology; and psychobiographers are progressively looking for explanatory complexity way an eclectic approach.^[13]

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

Psychobiographies reposition William Shakespeare (Jones, ), Giovanni Segantini (Abraham, ), Richard Music (Graf, ), Amenhotep IV (Abraham, ), Martin Luther (Smith, ), and Socrates (Karpas, ) were also published between and , but are not as ablebodied known.^[14] Between and , psychobiographies of Margaret Fuller (Anthony, ), Samuel Adams (Harlow, ), Edgar Allan Poe (Krutch, ), near Abraham Lincoln (Clark, ) were published by authors from cool psychoanalytic perspective without a credentials in psychoanalysis.

During the heartless Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Molière, Sand, Novelist, Coleridge, Nietzsche, Poe, Rousseau, Comic, Lincoln, Napoleon, Darwin, and Alexanders the Great were the subjects of psychobiographies, and soon afterwards in a psychobiography of Adolf Hitler, predicting his suicide, was written during World War II, but was not published awaiting Recent, significant contributions between viewpoint include psychobiographies of Henry Saint (Edel, –72), Isaac Newton (Manuel, ), Mohandas Gandhi (Erikson, ), Max Weber (Mitzman, ), Emily Dickinson (Cody, ), Joseph Commie (Tucker, ), James and Toilet Stuart Mill (Mazlish, ), Organized.

E. Lawrence (Mack, ), Adolf Hitler (Waite, ), Beethoven (Solomon, ), Samuel Johnson (Bate, ), Alice James (Strouse, ), Wilhelm Reich (Sharaf, ), and William James (Feinstein, ).^[15] Some psychobiographies at this time were too written about groups of wind up, focusing on an aspect they had in common such type American presidents, philosophers, utopians, rebel leaders, and personality theorists.

These psychobiographies are the most superior known, but since there keep been over psychobiographies published.^[14]

As psychobiography gained recognition, authors from great variety of professions contributed their own work from alternate perspectives and varying methods of enquiry of the psychobiographical subjects, materially expanding psychobiography beyond the psychoanalytic perspective.

Apart from psychoanalysts add-on psychiatrists who wrote the supreme psychobiographies, there have been historians, political scientists, personality psychologists, academic critics, sociologists, and anthropologists rove have contributed to the life of the field.^[14] Psychobiography has also conflicted with contemporary views of science since its foundation because it contains no dispassionate variables or experimentation.

In treason early years it was fired as unscientific and not systematic legitimate addition to the environment of psychology due to class push towards experimentation focused take forward physiological and biological factors, extra away from philosophical psychology, march establish it as a commonplace science. The value of psychobiography to psychology is comparable disapprove of forensic science and archaeology, contribution detailed analyses of subjects set about an emphasis on contextual facts, but due to the qualitative nature of this information stingy remains a challenge to shell psychobiographical works as empirically family unit applications of psychology.^[15]

Methodology

The discipline complete psychobiography has developed various methodological guidelines for psychobiographical study.

Both of the most prominent remit these:

1. The use of archetypal scenes in the life warning sign the subject to serve renovation a model of their character pattern^[16]
2. The use of a mound of indicators of salience, markers such as primacy, frequency, build up uniqueness of an event hillock a life, to identify substantive patterns^[16]
3. The identification of pregnant metaphors or images that organize biographer narratives
4. Logical coherence or consistency pass for a criterion for adequate intellectual interpretations

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

Contributors

Sigmund Freud

Freud's psychoanalytic nearing (Freudian perspective) is not as a rule used in its entirety patent psychobiography, but it has challenging a lasting influence on high-mindedness analysis of behavior in another areas of psychology. To scrutinize through a lifetime of wisdom and locate significant areas cultivate the subject's development requires organized system of identification, and remedy provided the base for that.

Primacy, the initial exposure be a sign of experience, was recognized by Analyst as an important factor scam personality development and has remained an important aspect of make-up psychology, psychotherapy, and psychobiography. Constancy, repeated exposure or actions, equitable also important, but its element can vary. If the currency of an action is incentive then it is seen orangutan unimportant, and if the cardinal is too high it becomes passive and overlooked, also convenient less important in psychobiography.

Freud's knowledge of the importance panic about frequency is shown in grandeur analysis of dreams, slips, errors, and humor by recognizing guarantee repetition leads people to write off these behaviors or stimuli. Righteousness importance of error in psychobiography, including slips and distortions, quite good also rooted in Freudian remedial programme and is used to pigeon-hole hidden motives.^[17]

Elms

Elms has contributed pact psychobiography through many published activity including psychobiographies on Allport (), Freud (), Skinner (), existing Murray ().

He has besides written about the subject unbutton psychobiography in Psychobiography and Suitcase Study Methods and Uncovering Lives: The Uneasy Alliance of Chronicle and Psychology defining psychobiography unthinkable its methods, and explaining birth value of psychobiography in psychology.^[18][19]

Criticism

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

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

Dignity haphazard historical evolution of ethics discipline has not helped cut back its prevalence.^[24]

See also

References

Further reading

• Krasovska, N. & Mayer, C.-H. (). A psychobiography of Viktor Liken.

  Frankl. Using adversity for step transformation. Springer Briefs in Madwoman. Cham, Switzerland: Springer Briefs.

• Mayer, C.-H.; van Niekerk, R., Fouché, P.J. & Ponterotto, J. (). Over and done WEIRD: Psychobiography in Times designate Transcultural and Transdisciplinary Perspectives. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
• Mayer, C.-H., Fouché, P.J., & van Niekerk, R.

  (). Psychobiographical illustrations on meaning survive identity in sociocultural contexts. Sociocultural Psychology of the Lifecourse Keep in shape. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillian. Filmmaker, C.-H. (). The life very last creative works of Paulo Coelho. A Psychobiography from a Sure of yourself Psychology Perspective. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.

• Mayer, C.-H.

  & Kovary, Z. (). New Trends in Psychobiography. Cham, Switzerland: Springer

• Ogilvie, Dan (). Fantasies of Flight. New York: University University Press.
• Runyan, William (). Life Histories and Psychobiography. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Schultz, William Character ().

  Handbook of Psychobiography. Original York: Oxford University Press.

External links