COURSE OUTLINE:
Class 1 (November 6, 2022): INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOHISTORY
The focus of this introductory session will be on empathetic listening in the search for the unconscious repetition compulsion in both patients and historical subjects. What constitutes good and bad parenting will be examined, as will be the difference between the high ideals and the realities of the well-known childhood advocates Alice Miller and Lloyd deMause.
Required Readings:
DeMause, Lloyd (1974). The evolution of childhood. History of Childhood Quarterly: The Journal of Psychohistory, 1(4), pp. 503-575. (Comments and reply: pp. 576-606).
Elovitz, Paul H. (2023). My psychoanalytic psychobiography and methodology. In Claude-Hélène Mayer, Roelf van Niekerk, Paul J. Fouche, & Joseph G. Ponterotto (eds.), Beyond Weird: Psychobiography in Times of Transcultural and Transdisciplinary Perspectives (Ch. 18). Springer Publishing. In press.
Loewenberg, Peter (1985/1996). Decoding the past: The psychohistorical approach (pp. vii-95, 240-283). Transactions Publishers.
Loewenberg, Peter (n.d.). Face in Chinese culture and in Sino-American diplomacy.
Miller, Martin (Fall 2022). The transgenerational influence of my war-traumatized mother. Clio’s Psyche, 29(1), 8-12.
Recommended Readings:
Alexander, I. (). Erikson and psychobiography; psychobiography and Erikson. In W. T. Schultz (Ed.), Handbook of Psychobiography (pp. 265–294). Oxford University Press.
Elovitz, Paul (Ed.) (2021). The many roads of the builders of psychohistory. ORI Academic Press.
Bloland, Sue Erikson (2005). In the shadow of fame: A memoir of the daughter of Erik Erikson. Viking Press.
Friedman, Lawrence J. (1999). Identity’s architect: A biography of Erik H. Erikson. Scribner.
Miller, Alice (1983). For your own good: The roots of violence in child-rearing.
Rozentsvit, Inna (Fall 2022). Transgenerational: A hole in the soul. Clio’s Psyche, 29(1), 34-35.
Stein, Howard (2017). Listening Deeply: An Approach to Understanding and Consulting in Organizational Culture (2nd ed.). Advances in Organizational Psychodynamics.
Class 2 (November 13, 2022): LISTENING FOR THE UNCONSCIOUS AND DEVELOPING METHODOLOGY
Here the focus will be on listening to the unconscious and learning the methodology for making it conscious. These points are especially applicable to the clinician and those aspiring to become psychoanalytic therapists. Splitting, repression, projection, projective identification, and other mechanisms of defense identified by Anna and Sigmund Freud will be examined psychohistorically as the bottom-up rather than top-down processes. As in clinical work, the focus in psychohistory is on the patient/ the object of inquiry, not the theory.
Required Readings:
Elovitz, Paul H. (2018). The making of psychohistory: Origins, controversies, and pioneering contributors. Routledge.
Elovitz, Paul H. (2023). My psychoanalytic psychobiography and methodology. In Claude-Hélène Mayer, Roelf van Niekerk, Paul J. Fouche, and Joseph G. Ponterotto (Eds.), Beyond Weird: Psychobiography in Times of Transcultural and Transdisciplinary Perspectives (Ch. 18). In press with Springer Publishing.
Freud, Anna (1936/68). Ego and the mechanisms of defense. Hogarth Press.
Recommended Readings:
Brown, Norman O. (1959). Life against death: The psychoanalytical meaning of history. Wesleyan University Press.
Loewenberg, Peter (1995). Fantasy and reality in history. Oxford University Press.
Young-Bruehl, E. (2008). Anna Freud: A biography (2nd Ed.). Yale University Press.
Class 3 (November 20, 2022): PSYCHOBIOGRAPHICAL APPROACH AND MATERIALS
Psychobiographers are like psychoanalysts in that they dig deeper into the lives of their subjects, but they also go to broader questions, such as the psychological relationship between the leaders and the led. Course participants will be given an opportunity to make a choice on focusing on some famous people, such as Lenin, Hitler, Stalin, Putin, Lincoln, JFK, Nixon, LBJ, and the Clintons.
Required Readings:
Beisel, David R. (2021). Doing psychobiography (unpublished short manuscript).
Beisel, Elovitz, Geifman, and Ihanus.(2022). Putin and Ukraine. Clio’s Psyche, 28(3), 300-328. https://cliospsyche.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/ClioSpring20225-5-5-22FINAL.pdf
Binion, Rudolph (1984). Hitler among the Germans. Northern Illinois University Press.
Elms, Alan C. (2005). Freud’s Leonardo: Why the first psychobiography went wrong. In W. T. Schultz (Ed.) (). Handbook of psychobiography (Ch. 15, pp. 210-222). Oxford University Press.
Hitler, Adolf (1925/1998). In the house of my parents. Mein Kampf (Ch. 1). Mariner Books. https://www.hitler.org/writings/Mein_Kampf/mkv1ch01.html
Recommended Readings:
Gay, Peter (1985). Freud for historians. Oxford University Press.
George, Alexander, & George, Juliette (1956/1964). Woodrow Wilson and Colonel House: A personality study. Dover.
Goodwin, Doris Kearns (1976). Lyndon Johnson and the American dream. Harper & Row. https://archive.org/details/lyndonjohnsonam00good
Runyan, William M. (1984). Life histories and psychobiography: Exploration in theory and method. Oxford University Press.
Schultz, W. T. (Ed.) (2005). Handbook of psychobiography. Oxford University Press.
Tucker, R. C. (1973). Stalin as a revolutionary: 1879 – 1929: A study in history and personality. W. W. Norton.
Tucker, R. C. (1990). Stalin in power: The revolution from above, 1928–1941. W. W. Norton.
Class 4 (December 4, 2022): THE HUMAN SEARCH FOR “THE OTHER”: WAR, PEACE, AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION
How easy is for humans to find “the other,” to be feared, hated, and even killed? The class will look at the literature of hatred and the insufficiently known literature on inhibitions on killing. When it comes to killing, fantasy and reality clash, with TV’s and the news’ focus on violence. The relationship between suicide and homicide will be probed.
Required Readings:
Grossman, Dave. (1995). On killing: The psychological costs of learning to kill in war and society. Little, Brown and Company, pp. vi-xxvi, 1-39.
Volkan, Vamık. (2013). Enemies on the couch. Pitchstone Publishing.
Recommended Readings:
Beisel, David (2004). The suicidal embrace: Hitler, the allies, and the origins of the Second World War. Circumstantial Productions Publications.
Blainey, Geoffrey. (1973). The causes of war. Free Press.
Hedges, Chris (2002). War is a force that gives us meaning. Free Press of Simon and Schuster.
Sharp, Gene (1973/1985). The politics of nonviolent action: Power and struggle (Part 1). The methods of nonviolent action (Part 2, 1973.). The dynamics of nonviolent action (Part 3, 1985). Porter Sargent Publishers.
Volkan, Vamık (1988). The need to have enemies and allies. Jason Aronson.
Volkan, Vamık (1997). Bloodlines: From ethnic pride to ethnic terrorism. Columbia University Press.
Volkan, Vamık (2006). Killing in the name of identity: A study of bloody conflicts. Pitchstone Publishing.
Class 5 (December 11, 2022): CHALLENGES AND TRIUMPHS IN PSYCHOHISTORY
Technological change has stressed our politics and society today as celebrity is confused with achievement; democracy is threatened by information transmitted through separate echo chambers. The bright future for a psychohistory based on childhood, creativity, empathy, innovation, personality, and overcoming trauma, with more women as healers, political leaders, and psychohistorians will be examined. Autobiographies and psychobiographies will also be examined.
Required Readings:
Elovitz, Paul, (2014). The successes and obstacles to the interdisciplinary marriage of psychology and history. In Jovan Byford and Cristian Tileagă (eds.), Psychology and History, Interdisciplinary Explorations (pp. 83-108). Cambridge University Press.
Elovitz, Paul, (2018). Awakening from the nightmare of the subjugation and violation of women. Clio’s Psyche, 25(1), pp. 1-8.
Turkle, Sherry, (2016). Reclaiming conversation: The power of talk in a digital age. Penguin Books.
Elovitz, Paul (2021). How Paul Elovitz used what he learned about childhood, leadership, listening, and personality to become a presidential psychobiographer. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 41(7), pp. 527-539.
Recommended Reading:
Elovitz, Paul (ed.) (2021). The many roads of the builders of psychohistory. ORI Academic Press.