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.
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