Author: William Todd Schultz
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198037600
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 393
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Book Description
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 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 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? Out of what painful life experience did James Barrie drive himself to invent Peter Pan? Why did Elvis experience 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 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.
Author: William McKinley Runyan
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780195034868
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 288
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Book Description
Author: Claude-Hélène Mayer
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9783030169558
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 523
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Book Description
This volume offers insights into contemporary trends and perspectives in psychobiographical research. It applys new theoretical and methodological frameworks and presents discourses on psychobiography from transdisciplinary backgrounds and various socio-cultural contexts, displaying the new state-of-the-art, new trends and themes in psychobiography. The book outlines psychobiography’s outstanding contribution to psychology from 36 internationally reputable authors. It also presents the ideas of five outstanding psychobiographers through interview excerpts. This book is a must for researchers, lecturers and practitioners in the field of psychology and social sciences interested in the use of new psychological theories and methodologies in life-span research.
Author: Claude-Hélène Mayer
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030812383
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 387
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Book Description
This book explores psychobiography with focus on meaning making and identity development in the life and works of extraordinary individuals. Meaning-making and identity development are existential constructs influencing psychological development, mental health and wellbeing across the lifecourse. The chapters illustrate through the eyes of 25 international psychobiographers various theoretical and methodological approaches to psychobiography. They explore how individuals, such as Angela Merkel, Karl Lagerfeld, Henri Nouwen, Vivian Maier, Charles Baudelaire, W.E.B. du Bois, Loránt Hegedüs, Kim Philby, Zoltan Paul Dienes, Albertina Sisulu, Ruth First, Sokrates, and Jesus construct their lives to make meaning, develop their identities and grow as individuals within their sociocultural contexts. The texts provide deep insight into life’s development.
Author: Robert D. Anderson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 328
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Book Description
A troubled childhood. A difficult adolescence. How might these have affected the adult character of church founder Joseph Smith? Psychiatrist Robert D. Anderson explores the impact on young Joseph of his family's ten moves in sixteen years, their dire poverty, especially after his father's Chinese export venture failed, and his father's drinking. It is equally significant, writes Anderson, that Joseph's mother suffered bouts of depression. For instance, "for months" she "did not feel as though life was worth seeking" after two sisters died of tuberculosis and later when she buried two sons, Ephraim and Alvin. A typhoid epidemic nearly claimed her daughter Sophronia, and the same affliction left Joseph with a crippled leg, after which he was sent to live on the coast with an uncle. Such factors and others produced emotional wounds that emerged later in the prophet's life and writings, in particular, according to Anderson, in the Book of Mormon.
Author: Danjuma G. Gibson
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319752294
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 197
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Book Description
In the extreme context of the American slavocracy, how do we account for the robust subjectivity and agency of Frederick Douglass? In an environment of extremity, where most contemporary psychological theory suggests the human spirit would be vanquished, how did Frederick Douglass emerge to become one of the most prolific thinkers of the 19th century? To address this question, this book engages in a psychoanalytic examination of all four of Frederick Douglass’ autobiographies. Danjuma Gibson examines when, how, and why Douglass tells his story in the manner he does, how his story shifts and takes shape with each successive autobiography, and the resulting psychodynamic, pastoral, and practical theological implications.
Author: Joseph G. Ponterotto
Publisher: Charles C Thomas Publisher
ISBN: 0398087415
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 224
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Book Description
Robert (Bobby) James Fischer was one of the world’s most mysterious and exciting personalities of the middle 20th century. He single handedly ended a 35 year span of Russian domination of elite chess when he defeated Boris Spassky for the World Chess Championship in 1972 in Reykjavik, Iceland. Fischer’s dynamic victory ignited in Americans a passion for the game of chess and a deep pride in being American during the height of the Cold War. The world knows the story of Fischer’s ascent to the pinnacle of chess genius and brilliance, and it knows of his psychological decline into social isolation, paranoia, and likely mental illness. Now, for the first time, through “A Psychobiography of Bobby Fischer: Understanding the Genius, Mystery, and Psychological Decline of a World Chess Champion,” we come to understand the inner workings of Fischer’s mind – the genetic, personal, family, cultural, and political factors that collectively provide a penetrating window into the “why” of Bobby Fischer’s genius and bizarre behavior. Renowned counseling psychologist and author Dr. Joseph G. Ponterotto deconstructs almost every aspect of Fischer’s personal and career life to sculpt an integrative psychological profile of this enigmatic world personality. Though there have been many articles, books, and films on Bobby Fischer, this text represents the first scholarly psychological assessment of the world’s most famous chess champion. Among the topics addressed in the current volume are Bobby’s early family environment and his natural intellectual gifts that predisposed him to genius in chess. Critical to understanding Bobby’s personality development is his relationship with his mother Regina Fischer and his sister Joan Fischer, as well as his relationship to his likely biological father, Paul Felix Nemenyi. These topics are explored in-depth and the impact of these relationships on Bobby’s psychological development is highlighted. Bobby’s later-life internal mental state -- his mistrust, anger, and hatred of Jews – is explored and the origins of this affective state are closely examined. Dr. Ponterotto also provides the first, carefully and cautiously sculpted psychological autopsy of Bobby Fischer relying on modern psychological assessment procedures. Of interest to readers will be a full chapter comparing the genius and mental health challenges of the United States’ two greatest chess champions who lived a century apart, Paul Morphy and Bobby Fischer. This book also explores the topic of the prevalence of mental illness among elite chess players, and provides a critical review of the research on the potential relationship between creativity (a hallmark of chess genius) and vulnerability to mental illness. Finally, Dr. Ponterotto outlines counseling and psychotherapy interventions that very likely could have helped Bobby throughout his life. Though there are numerous biographies on the life of Bobby Fischer, this text represents the first scholarly, systematically derived psychobiography of this great chess champion and enigmatic world personality. The book includes 10 content chapters and select Tables, Figures, and Family Genograms, as well as Appendices providing extensive detail on the life of Bobby Fischer and family. Finally, the book includes some original family photos never before published.
Author: Irving E. Alexander
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 9780822310204
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 300
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Book Description
How can we know what another human being is like in some meaningful, dynamic way? Can we distill the signature-like features of an individual personality? What is the relationship between personal experience and our attempts to describe the person who has that experience? This work by a highly respected senior psychologist is an effort to answer these questions. Irving E. Alexander presents a case for considering the personal narrative of a human life as the most compelling aspect of that life to be decoded and understood. In part a critique of an exclusive reliance on general theories about the development of personality and ways of knowing based primarily on comparison with others, Personology is illustrated with material drawn from the lives, personal writings, and theories of Freud, Jung, and Sullivan. Alexander develops new insights into the lives of these men and offers methods and guidelines for investigating and teaching personology and psychobiography.
Author: Steve Daily
Publisher: Page Publishing Inc
ISBN: 1647018765
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 246
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Book Description
This explosive work contains a great deal of highly documented material on the life and movement of Ellen G. White that Adventists in general, to say nothing of the public, will not know. The book is not a classic psychobiography, although history and psychology are the primary disciplines employed. It also contains a sprinkling of theology and personal reflection to make it a unique blend. The most striking evidence presented raises major questions about the prophet’s mental and moral health. It is a must read for anyone who truly wants to understand Seventh-Day Adventism and its prophetic founder. A devastating work. What Numbers and Rea started, your book will finish! —John Dart (1936-2019), longtime religion editor, Los Angeles Times I enjoyed the writing and the stories. The anecdotes you included enriched the content. Your writing was personal, and I think readers will feel that you are writing to them, and makes the book of increased value. There is the same question with Joseph Smith. Why do people stay in the face of such documentation? What are the forces that keep them tied to source documentation of fraud? —Dr. Robert Anderson, psychiatrist, author, Inside the Mind of Joseph Smith: Psychobiography and the Book of Mormon I found the material fascinating, a powerful polemic! —Ronald Numbers, William Coleman professor of History, University of Wisconsin-Madison, author, Prophetess of Health
Author: Claude-Hélène Mayer
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030169537
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 513
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Book Description
This volume offers insights into contemporary trends and perspectives in psychobiographical research. It applys new theoretical and methodological frameworks and presents discourses on psychobiography from transdisciplinary backgrounds and various socio-cultural contexts, displaying the new state-of-the-art, new trends and themes in psychobiography. The book outlines psychobiography’s outstanding contribution to psychology from 36 internationally reputable authors. It also presents the ideas of five outstanding psychobiographers through interview excerpts. This book is a must for researchers, lecturers and practitioners in the field of psychology and social sciences interested in the use of new psychological theories and methodologies in life-span research.
