Handbook of Psychobiography

by Schultz, William Todd

• ISBN13: 9780195168273
• ISBN10: 0195168275
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-07-07
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This exceptionally readable and down-to-earth handbook is destined to become the definitive guide to psychobiographical research, the application of psychological theory and research to individual lives of historical importance. It brings together for the first time the world's leadingpsychobiographers, 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 definitionsof good and bad psychobiography, discusses an optimal structure for 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 soclearly 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 questionssuch 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? Out of what painful life experience did James Barrie drive himself to invent Peter Pan? Why did Elvisexperience such difficulty singing the song "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" What accounts for Bin Laden's radicalism, Kim Jong Il's paranoia, George W. Bush's conflict with identity? Why did Freud go so disastrously astray in his analysis of Leonardo? What made psychologist Gordon Allport's meetingwith 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.

Table of Contents

Contributors	xi
Part I. How to Write a Psychobiography
Introducing Psychobiography	3	(16)
William Todd Schultz
Evolving Conceptions of Psychobiography and the Study of Lives: Encounters With Psychoanalysis, Personality Psychology, and Historical Science	19	(23)
William M. Runyan
How to Strike Psychological Pay Dirt in Biographical Data	42	(22)
William Todd Schultz
What Psychobiographers Might Learn From Personality Psychology	64	(20)
Dan P. McAdams
If the Glove Fits: The Art of Theoretical Choice in Psychobiography	84	(12)
Alan C. Elms
How to Critically Evaluate Alternative Explanations of Life Events: The Case of Van Gogh's Ear	96	(8)
William M. Runyan
Divide and Multiply: Comparative Theory and Methodology in Multiple Case Psychobiography	104	(8)
Kate Isaacson
Diane Arbus's Photographic Autobiography: Theory and Method Revisited	112	(23)
William Todd Schultz
Part II. Psychobiographies of Artists
Nothing Alive Can Be Calculated: The Psychobiographical Study of Artists	135	(7)
William Todd Schultz
Twelve Ways to Say ``Lonesome'': Assessing Error and Control in the Music of Elvis Presley	142	(16)
Alan C. Elms
Bruce Heller
Mourning, Melancholia, and Sylvia Plath	158	(17)
William Todd Schultz
Margaret's Smile	175	(13)
Daniel M. Ogilvie
Edith Wharton and Ethan Frome: A Psychobiographical Exploration	188	(15)
James William Anderson
Part III. Psychobiographies of Psychologists
The Psychobiographical Study of Psychologists	203	(7)
James William Anderson
Freud as Leonardo: Why the First Psychobiography Went Wrong	210	(13)
Alan C. Elms
Four, Two, or One? Gordon Allport and the Unique Personality	223	(17)
Nicole B. Barenbaum
Nietzsche's Madness	240	(25)
Kyle Arnold
George Atwood
Erikson and Psychobiography, Psychobiography and Erikson	265	(20)
Irving Alexander
From the Book of Mormon to the Operational Definition: The Existential Project of S. S. Stevens	285	(16)
Ian Nicholson
Part IV. Psychobiographies of Political Figures
Alive and Kicking: The Problematics of Political Psychobiography	301	(10)
Alan C. Elms
Anna V. Song
Osama Bin Laden: The Sum of All Fears	311	(12)
Anthony J. Dennis
In His Father's Shadow: George W. Bush and the Politics of Personal Transformation	323	(21)
Stanley A. Renshon
Hunting the Snark: Methodological Considerations in Studying Elusive Politicians	344	(13)
Anna V. Song
Psychobiography in Context: Predicting the Behavior of Tyrants	357	(12)
Betty Glad
Index	369