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Psychobiography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Psychobiography aims to understand historically significant individuals, such as artists or political leaders, through the application of psychological theory and research.

Through its merging of personality psychology and historical evidence,[1] psychobiography may be considered a historical form of therapeutic case study: it represents a growing field in the realm of biography.[2] Psychopathography is sometimes used as a term to indicate that the person being analyzed was not mentally healthy, "path" coming from pathos (πάθος)—Ancient Greek for suffering or illness.

Background

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Psychobiography is a field within the realms of psychology and biography that analyzes the lives of historically significant individuals through psychological theory and research. Its goal is to develop a better understanding of notable individuals by applying psychological theories to their biographies to further explain the motives behind some of the subjects actions and decisions. Popular subjects of psychobiographies include figures such as Adolf Hitler [3], Vincent van Gogh [4], William Shakespeare[5], Martin Luther King Jr. [6], Abraham Lincoln [7], and Saddam Hussein [8]. A typical biography is often very descriptive, and tries to record every notable event that happened in a person's lifetime, whereas a psychobiography primarily focuses on some particular events, and tries to better understand why they happened. This field's potential has not only aided in developing a better understanding to many notable biographies throughout history, but has also inspired direction and insight into the field of psychology.

One of the first great examples of this field's utility was Dr. Henry Murray's report on the analysis of Adolf Hitler's personality during the end of World War II. Forced to psychoanalyze from a distance, Dr. Murray used multiple sources, including Hitler's genealogy, Hitler's own writings, and biographies of Hitler, so that the Allied forces could understand his personality to better predict his behavior. By applying a theory of personality that consisted of 20 psychogenic needs, Dr. Murray presumed Hitler's personality as "counteractive narcism", and was able to correctly predict the German leader's suicide in the face of his country's defeat. This work by Dr. Murray not only helped establish personality psychology as a behavioral science, but it also showed how the field of psychobiography could be applied as a means of psychoanalysis.[9]

Origins and development

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Persons who have been the subject of psychobiographical research include Freud, Adolf Hitler,[3] Sylvia Plath [10], Carl Jung, Vincent van Gogh,[11] Martin Luther,[12] Abraham Lincoln, Elvis Presley [13], Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche,[14] Andrew Jackson [15], Richard Nixon,[16] and Ignatius of Loyola.[17]

Major psychobiographical authors include Erik Erikson,[18] James William Anderson,[19] Henry Murray,[20] George E. Atwood,[21] and William Runyan.[22]

Many psychobiographies are Freudian or psychodynamic in orientation, but other commonly used theories include narrative models of identity such as the life story model, script theory, object relations, and existentialism/phenomenology; and psychobiographers are increasingly looking for explanatory complexity through an eclectic approach.[23]

Though there were other psychobiographies written before Freud's Leonardo da Vinci, A Memory of His Childhood in 1910,[24] it is considered the most significant contribution of its time, despite its flaws. Psychobiographies about William Shakespeare (Jones, 1910),[25] Giovanni Segantini (Abraham, 1912),[26] Richard Wagner (Graf, 1911),[27] Amenhotep IV (Abraham, 1912),[28] Martin Luther (Smith, 1913),[29] and Socrates (Karpas, 1915)[30] were also published between 1910 and 1915, but are not as well known. Between 1920 and 1926, psychobiographies of Margaret Fuller (Anthony, 1920),[31] Samuel Adams (Harlow, 1923),[32] Edgar Allan Poe (Krutch, 1926),[33] and Abraham Lincoln (Clark, 1923)[34] were published by authors from a psychoanalytic perspective without a background in psychoanalysis. During the 1930s figures like Tolstoyand Dostoevsky were the subjects of psychobiographies, and soon afterward in 1943 a psychobiography of Adolf Hitler, predicting his suicide, was written during World War II, but was not published until 1972. [35][36][37]

Recent, significant contributions between 1960 and 1990 include psychobiographies of Henry James (Edel, 1953–72),[38] Isaac Newton (Manuel, 1968),[39] Mohandas Gandhi (Erikson, 1969),[40] Max Weber (Mitzman, 1969),[41] Emily Dickinson (Cody, 1971),[42] Joseph Stalin (Tucker, 1973),[43] James and John Stuart Mill (Mazlish, 1975),[44] T. E. Lawrence (Mack, 1976),[45] Adolf Hitler (Waite, 1977),[46] Beethoven (Solomon, 1977),[47] Samuel Johnson (Bate, 1977),[48] Alice James (Strouse, 1980),[49] Wilhelm Reich (Sharaf, 1983),[50] and William James (Feinstein, 1984).[51] Some psychobiographies at this time were also written about groups of people, focusing on an aspect they had in common such as American presidents, philosophers, utopians, revolutionary leaders, and personality theorists. These psychobiographies are the most well known, but since 1910 there have been over 4000 psychobiographies published.

As psychobiography gained recognition, authors from a variety of professions contributed their own work from alternate perspectives and varying methods of analysis of the psychobiographical subjects, significantly expanding psychobiography beyond the psychoanalytical perspective. Apart from psychoanalysts and psychiatrists who wrote the first psychobiographies, there have been historians, political scientists, personality psychologists, literary critics, sociologists, and anthropologists that have contributed to the growth of the field.[52]

Psychobiography has also conflicted with contemporary views of science since its origin because it contains no controlled variables or experimentation. In its early years it was dismissed as unscientific and not a legitimate addition to the field of psychology due to the push towards experimentation focused on physiological and biological factors, and away from philosophical psychology, to establish it as a natural science. The value of psychobiography to psychology is comparable to forensic science and archaeology, offering detailed analyses of subjects with an emphasis on contextual information, but due to the qualitative nature of this information it remains a challenge to validate psychobiographical works as empirically based applications of psychology.[53]

Methodology

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The discipline of psychobiography has developed various methodological guidelines for psychobiographical study. Some of the most prominent are these:

  1. The use of prototypical scenes in the life of the subject to serve as a model of their personality pattern[54]
  2. The use of a series of indicators of salience, markers such as primacy, frequency, and uniqueness of an event in a life, to identify significant patterns[54]
  3. The identification of pregnant metaphors or images that organize autobiographical narratives
  4. Logical coherence or consistency as a criterion for adequate psychological interpretations

Contributors

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Sigmund Freud

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Freud's psychoanalytic approach (Freudian perspective) is not commonly used in its entirety in psychobiography, but it has had a lasting influence on the analysis of behavior in other areas of psychology. To sift through a lifetime of information and locate significant areas in the subject's development requires a system of identification, and psychoanalysis provided the base for this. Primacy, the initial exposure or experience, was recognized by Freud as an important factor in personality development and has remained an important aspect of personality psychology, psychotherapy, and psychobiography. Frequency, repeated exposure or actions, is also important, but its significance can vary. If the frequency of an action is low then it is seen as unimportant, and if the frequency is too high it becomes passive and overlooked, also becoming less important in psychobiography. Freud's knowledge of the importance of frequency is shown in the analysis of dreams, slips, errors, and humor by recognizing that repetition leads people to disregard these behaviors or stimuli. The importance of error in psychobiography, including slips and distortions, is also rooted in Freudian psychoanalysis and is used to identify hidden motives.[55]

Erik H. Erikson

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Erik Homburger Erikson (June 15, 1902 – May 12, 1994) was a German-American psychoanalyst and developmental psychologist widely credited with establishing psychobiography as a serious scholarly genre.[56][57][58] Born in Frankfurt to a Danish mother and trained in psychoanalysis at the Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute, undergoing analysis with Anna Freud and earning a Montessori teaching credential, he emigrated to the United States in 1933, holding positions over his career at Harvard, Yale, and the University of California, Berkeley, before returning to Harvard as professor of human development.[59][60][61][62] Though he never earned a university degree, he became one of the most influential psychological thinkers of the twentieth century, best known for his theory of psychosocial development across eight life stages and for coining the term "identity crisis."[62][60][63][64]

His two major psychobiographies applied this developmental framework to historical figures. Young Man Luther: A Study in Psychoanalysis and History (1958) interpreted Martin Luther's religious rebellion through the lens of a prolonged identity crisis, arguing that Luther's personal struggle resolved itself in a way that transformed Western religious history.[65][60] The book is generally regarded as the founding text of modern psychobiography and psychohistory, demonstrating that psychoanalytic interpretation of a historical life could meet scholarly standards rather than reduce greatness to pathology.[57][58] Gandhi's Truth: On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence (1969), which examined the middle-aged Gandhi's leadership of the 1918 Ahmedabad mill strike, won both the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction and the National Book Award.[66][56] Erikson also wrote shorter psychobiographical studies of figures including Thomas Jefferson (Dimensions of a New Identity, 1974) and William James.[67]

Erikson's innovation, later emphasized by methodologists like Runyan and Elms, was shifting psychobiography away from Freudian pathography – diagnosing genius as neurosis – toward understanding how a subject's inner conflicts could be creatively resolved in ways that reshaped their historical moment.[57][68] Ironically, Erikson himself became a frequent subject of psychobiographical analysis, particularly regarding his lifelong uncertainty about the identity of his biological father, which biographers such as Lawrence J. Friedman (Identity's Architect, 1999) have connected to his preoccupation with identity.[59]

Alan C. Elms

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Alan C. Elms (born 1938) is an American psychologist and professor emeritus of psychology at the University of California, Davis, known as one of the foremost advocates and practitioners of psychobiography within personality psychology. He received his PhD in psychology from Yale University in 1965, where early in his career he served as a research assistant on Stanley Milgram’s obedience experiments – a topic he continued to write about for decades, including the article “Obedience Lite” (American Psychologist, 2009).[69]

His central contribution to the field is Uncovering Lives: The Uneasy Alliance of Biography and Psychology (Oxford University Press, 1994) [70], which defended psychobiography against critics who charged it with trivializing complex adult personalities, argued that skilled psychobiography can rival the best traditional biography, and proposed guidelines for judging quality work in the genre. The book presented his own case studies of personality theorists (Freud, Jung, Allport, Skinner), imaginative writers (including Isaac Asimov, L. Frank Baum, Jack Williamson, and Vladimir Nabokov), and political figures (George H. W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, and Saddam Hussein). Reviewers, including Kirkus, ranked it among the best books written about biography. He has also written about the subject of psychobiography in Psychobiography and Case Study Methods. [71]

Elms’s earlier books include Social Psychology and Social Relevance (1972)[72] and Personality in Politics (1976)[73]. His influential articles include “Skinner’s Dark Year and Walden Two” (1981), “Freud as Leonardo: Why the First Psychobiography Went Wrong” (1988), and psychobiographical studies of science fiction writers Cordwainer Smith and James Tiptree, Jr. In later years he worked on a book-length psychobiography of Elvis Presley with clinical psychologist Bruce Heller.

William Todd Schultz (also known as W. Todd Schultz or Todd Schultz)

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William Todd Schultz (born in Portland, Oregon) is an American personality psychologist and professor of psychology at Pacific University in Oregon, regarded as a leading contemporary practitioner and organizer of the field of psychobiography. He earned a BA in philosophy and psychology from Lewis & Clark College in 1985, followed by an MA (1987) and PhD (1993) in personality psychology from the University of California, Davis – the department where Alan Elms taught – before holding visiting posts at Lewis & Clark and the University of Portland and joining Pacific University’s faculty. [74]

Schultz conceived and edited the Handbook of Psychobiography (Oxford University Press, 2005), which assembled the field’s leading figures and has been described by reviewers as the definitive guide to psychobiographical research; he contributed five of its chapters himself, on method and on Diane Arbus and Sylvia Plath. He also curates and edits Oxford’s “Inner Lives” series of psychobiographies, which has included volumes on George W. Bush (by Dan McAdams), John Lennon (by Tim Kasser), Truman Capote, Philip K. Dick, and Bob Dylan.[75]

He has published four books of his own. Three of them are psychologically focused studies of complex artists: Tiny Terror: Why Truman Capote (Almost) Wrote Answered Prayers (Oxford, 2011), An Emergency in Slow Motion: The Inner Life of Diane Arbus (Bloomsbury, 2011), and Torment Saint: The Life of Elliott Smith (Bloomsbury, 2013). [76] The fourth, The Mind of the Artist: Personality and the Drive to Create (Oxford University Press, 2022)[77], synthesizes decades of research on personality and creativity, arguing that the trait of openness – rather than mental illness – is the unifying core of the artistic mind, illustrated through figures such as David Bowie, Frida Kahlo, John Coltrane, Sylvia Plath, and Kurt Cobain.

His shorter psychobiographical writings cover subjects including Jack Kerouac, Roald Dahl, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Oscar Wilde, and James Agee, and his article “Psychobiography: Theory and Practice” (American Psychologist, 2017) provided a scholarly overview of the field’s methods. In 2015 he received the Erikson Prize for Mental Health Media, and from 2016 to 2017 he was a Shearing Fellow at the Black Mountain Institute. [78]

William McKinley "Mac" Runyan

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William McKinley “Mac” Runyan (born October 31, 1947) is an American psychologist widely regarded as a leading methodologist of psychobiography. He earned his PhD in clinical psychology and public practice from Harvard University in 1975 and served as a professor in the School of Social Welfare and adjunct professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1979 to 2010, where he was also a research psychologist at the Institute of Personality and Social Research. He is now professor emeritus at Berkeley's School of Social Welfare. [79]

His landmark book, Life Histories and Psychobiography: Explorations in Theory and Method (Oxford University Press, 1982), responded to major criticisms of psychobiography and the case study method and proposed criteria for evaluating and improving studies of individual lives; it has been described by reviewers as the essential text in the field. His influential 1981 article “Why Did Van Gogh Cut Off His Ear? The Problem of Alternative Explanations in Psychobiography,” published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, became a touchstone for debates about explanation and evidence in the genre. Other major works include Psychology and Historical Interpretation (1988) and, with Gardner Lindzey, volume 9 of A History of Psychology in Autobiography (2007). His research spans the history of psychoanalysis and personality psychology, life histories and case studies, adult development, and the history and philosophy of the social sciences. [80]

Claude-Helene Mayer

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Claude-Hélène Mayer is a psychobiographer whose research combines psychology, management, and cultural anthropology. Her work examines psychobiography from an interdisciplinary perspective.[81]

Mayer applies complex psychological theories, such as Jungian analysis, existential psychology, and intercultural psychology, to the lives of prominent individuals. Her work often explores the interplay of culture, identity, and meaning-making, providing nuanced portraits that go beyond surface-level biography.[82][83] She further investigates subjects from diverse cultural backgrounds and emphasizes the role of sociocultural context in psychological development. This positions her work at the intersection of psychobiography and intercultural psychology, a space few have explored with such rigor. She has contributed to bring psychobiography and the non-WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich and Democratic) approach closer together[84] and her work is known for its depth and scholarly precision. Finally, she has contributed to expand the psychobiographical research methodology, highlighting the importance to use interdisciplinary theories, positive psychology and existential psychology[85] as tools in the psychobiographical analysis. She is further a pioneer in emphasising the importance of "Lessons learned" from psychobiography.[86][87]

Criticism

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Psychobiography has faced criticism from the very start,[88] crystallised above all in the production of what Erikson caricatured as "originology"—the explaining away of significant public events and actions as the product of some minute childhood detail.[89]

Bad psychobiography—using mechanical psychologising, a selective mining of the facts,[90] overdeterminism, and a tendency to pathologise[91]—is considered easy to write. The haphazard historical evolution of the discipline has not helped reduce its prevalence.[92]

See also

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References

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  1. ↑ B. J. Carducci, The Psychology of Personality (2009) p. 196
  2. ↑ C. Rollyson, Biography (2007) p. 3
  3. 1 2 Waite, Robert G.L. The Psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler. New York: First DaCapo Press Edition, (1993) (orig. pub. 1977). ISBN 9780306805141
  4. ↑ "PEP | Read - Stranger on the Earth … A Psychological Biography of Vincent Van Gogh: By Albert J. Lubin, M.D. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1972. 265 pp". pep-web.org. ISBN 9780306807268. Retrieved 2026-07-06.
  5. ↑ Jones, Ernest (1976). Hamlet and Oedipus. The Norton library. New York: Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-00799-2.
  6. ↑ Ghaemi, Nassir (2026). Soul on fire: Martin Luther King Jr and the psychology of nonviolence. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-765760-7.
  7. ↑ Strozier, Charles B. (1982). Lincoln's quest for union: public and private meanings. Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana (Library of Congress). New York: Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-04119-0.
  8. ↑ Schultz, William Todd, ed. (2005). Handbook of psychobiography. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-516827-3.
  9. ↑ "Analysis of the Personality of Adolph Hitler – Law Library". Retrieved 2026-07-07.
  10. ↑ Butscher, Edward (2003). Sylvia Plath: Method and Madness (2nd ed.). Chicago: Schaffner Press. ISBN 978-0-9710598-2-5.
  11. ↑ Meissner, William W. (1997). Vincent's Religion: The Search for Meaning. New York Washington, DC/Baltimore Bern Frankfurt am Main Berlin Vienna Paris: Lang. ISBN 978-0820433905.
  12. ↑ G, R, Elton, The Practice of History (1969) p. 39
  13. ↑ Whitmer, Peter O. (1996). The inner Elvis: a psychological biography of Elvis Aaron Presley (1 ed.). New York: Hyperion. ISBN 978-0-7868-6102-6.
  14. ↑ Safranski, Rüdiger. Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography Granta Books, London, (2002); Vienna, (2000); New York (2002) ISBN 0-393-05008-4
  15. ↑ Curtis, James C.; Handlin, Oscar (1976). Andrew Jackson and the search for vindication. The Library of American biography. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-673-39334-0.
  16. ↑ Volkan, Vamik D.; Itzkowitz, Norman; Dod, Andrew W. (1997). Richard Nixon: A Psychobiography. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0231108540.
  17. ↑ Meissner, William W. (1994). Ignatius of Loyola: The Psychology of a Saint. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300060793.
  18. ↑ "Erik Erikson", Wikipedia, 2026-06-28, retrieved 2026-07-07
  19. ↑ "James Anderson". Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute. Retrieved 2023-10-25.
  20. ↑ "Henry Alexander Murray | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2023-10-25.
  21. ↑ Atwood, George E.; Tomkins, Silvan S. (April 1976). "On the Subjectivity of Personality Theory". Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences. 12 (2): 166–177. doi:10.1002/1520-6696(197604)12:2<166::aid-jhbs2300120208>3.0.co;2-y. PMID 1029746.
  22. ↑ "William Runyan | Berkeley Social Welfare". socialwelfare.berkeley.edu. 8 September 2020. Retrieved 2023-10-25.
  23. ↑ Elms, Alan C. (1997). Uncovering Lives: The Uneasy Alliance of Biography and Psychology. Cary: Oxford University Press, Incorporated. ISBN 978-0-19-511379-2.
  24. ↑ Freud, Sigmund (1989) [1910]. Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of His Childhood. W. W. Norton. ISBN 9780393001495.
  25. ↑ Jones, Ernest (1976) [1949]. Hamlet and Oedipus. W. W. Norton. ISBN 9780393007992.
  26. ↑ Abraham, Karl (1911). Giovanni Segantini: Ein psychoanalytischer Versuch (in German). Leipzig and Vienna: Franz Deuticke.
  27. ↑ Graf, Max (1911). Richard Wagner im "Fliegenden Holländer": Ein Beitrag zur Psychologie künstlerischen Schaffens (in German). Leipzig and Vienna: Franz Deuticke.
  28. ↑ Abraham, Karl (1912). Amenhotep IV. (Echnaton): Psychoanalytische Beiträge zum Verständnis seiner Persönlichkeit und des monotheistischen Aton-Kultes (in German). Leipzig and Vienna: Franz Deuticke.
  29. ↑ Smith, Preserved (1913). "Luther's Early Development in the Light of Psycho-Analysis". The American Journal of Psychology. 24 (3): 360–377.
  30. ↑ Karpas, Morris J. (1915). "Socrates in the Light of Modern Psychopathology". Journal of Abnormal Psychology. 10: 185–200.
  31. ↑ Anthony, Katharine (1970) [1920]. Margaret Fuller: A Psychological Biography. Scholarly Press. ISBN 9780403004959.
  32. ↑ Harlow, Ralph Volney (1975) [1923]. Samuel Adams: Promoter of the American Revolution, A Study in Psychology and Politics. Octagon Books. ISBN 9780374936648.
  33. ↑ Krutch, Joseph Wood (1992) [1926]. Edgar Allan Poe: A Study in Genius. Reprint Services. ISBN 9780781268356.
  34. ↑ Clark, L. Pierce (2007) [1933]. Lincoln: A Psycho-Biography. Kessinger. ISBN 9781432594121.
  35. ↑ Rancour-Laferriere, Daniel (2007). Tolstoy's quest for God. New Brunswick, N.J: Transaction Publishers. ISBN 978-0-7658-0376-4.
  36. ↑ Breger, Louis (1989). Dostoevsky: the author as psychoanalyst. New York u.a: New York University Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-1112-5.
  37. ↑ Langer, Walter C. (1972). The Mind of Adolf Hitler: The Secret Wartime Report. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465046201.
  38. ↑ Edel, Leon (1985). Henry James: A Life. Harper & Row. ISBN 9780060154592.
  39. ↑ Manuel, Frank E. (1990) [1968]. A Portrait of Isaac Newton. Da Capo Press. ISBN 9780306804007.
  40. ↑ Erikson, Erik H. (1993) [1969]. Gandhi's Truth: On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence. W. W. Norton. ISBN 9780393310344. Cite error: The named reference "Erikson1969" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  41. ↑ Mitzman, Arthur (2017) [1969]. The Iron Cage: An Historical Interpretation of Max Weber. Routledge. ISBN 9781138536401.
  42. ↑ Cody, John (1971). After Great Pain: The Inner Life of Emily Dickinson. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674008786.
  43. ↑ Tucker, Robert C. (1974) [1973]. Stalin as Revolutionary, 1879–1929: A Study in History and Personality. W. W. Norton. ISBN 9780393007381.
  44. ↑ Mazlish, Bruce (1988) [1975]. James and John Stuart Mill: Father and Son in the Nineteenth Century. Transaction Books. ISBN 9780887387272.
  45. ↑ Mack, John E. (1998) [1976]. A Prince of Our Disorder: The Life of T. E. Lawrence. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674704947.
  46. ↑ Waite, Robert G. L. (1993) [1977]. The Psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler. Da Capo Press. ISBN 9780306805141.
  47. ↑ Solomon, Maynard (1998) [1977]. Beethoven (2nd ed.). Schirmer Books. ISBN 9780028647173.
  48. ↑ Bate, Walter Jackson (1998) [1977]. Samuel Johnson. Counterpoint. ISBN 9781887178761.
  49. ↑ Strouse, Jean (1991) [1980]. Alice James: A Biography. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 9780395597736.
  50. ↑ Sharaf, Myron (1994) [1983]. Fury on Earth: A Biography of Wilhelm Reich. Da Capo Press. ISBN 9780306805752.
  51. ↑ Feinstein, Howard M. (1986) [1984]. Becoming William James. Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801493737.
  52. ↑ Runyan, W., M. (1988). Progress in psychobiography. Journal of Personality, 56, 295-326.
  53. ↑ Schultz, W., T. (2005). Handbook of psychobiography. New York, NY: Oxford University Press
  54. 1 2 A, Jareño Gómez; C, Chiclana Actis; C, Noriega García (2019-11-20). "Qualitative Methodology: Psychobiography". Psychology and Psychotherapy: Research Study. 3 (1): 1–6.
  55. ↑ Alexander, I., E. (1988). Personality, psychological assessment, and psychobiography. Journal of Personality, 56, 1.
  56. 1 2 Rich, Grant J. (2026). "Erik Erikson". In Teo, Thomas (ed.). The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 1–5. doi:10.1007/978-3-031-70581-6_382-1. ISBN 978-3-031-70581-6. Retrieved July 10, 2026.
  57. 1 2 3 Runyan, William McKinley (1982). Life Histories and Psychobiography: Explorations in Theory and Method. New York: Oxford University Press.
  58. 1 2 Schultz, William Todd (2005). "Introducing Psychobiography". In Schultz, William Todd (ed.). Handbook of Psychobiography. New York: Oxford University Press.
  59. 1 2 Friedman, Lawrence J. (1999). Identity's Architect: A Biography of Erik H. Erikson. New York: Scribner. ISBN 978-0-684-19525-4.
  60. 1 2 3 "Erik Erikson". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved July 10, 2026.
  61. ↑ "Erik Erikson". Erikson Institute. Retrieved July 10, 2026.
  62. 1 2 "Erik Erikson, 91, Psychoanalyst Who Reshaped Views of Human Growth, Dies". The New York Times. May 13, 1994. Retrieved July 10, 2026. Reprinted from the New York Times News Service as "Erik Erikson, psychoanalyst, dies at 91". The Baltimore Sun. May 13, 1994. Retrieved July 10, 2026.
  63. ↑ Erikson, Erik H. (1950). "Eight Ages of Man". Childhood and Society. New York: W. W. Norton.
  64. ↑ Erikson, Erik H. (1968). Identity: Youth and Crisis. New York: W. W. Norton.
  65. ↑ Erikson, Erik H. (1958). Young Man Luther: A Study in Psychoanalysis and History. New York: W. W. Norton.
  66. ↑ Cite error: The named reference Erikson19692 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  67. ↑ Erikson, Erik H. (1974). Dimensions of a New Identity. New York: W. W. Norton.
  68. ↑ Elms, Alan C. (1994). Uncovering Lives: The Uneasy Alliance of Biography and Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press.
  69. ↑ Elms, Alan C. (2009). "Obedience lite". American Psychologist. 64 (1): 32–36. doi:10.1037/a0014473. ISSN 1935-990X.
  70. ↑ Elms, Alan C. (1994). Uncovering lives : the uneasy alliance of biography and psychology. Internet Archive. New York : Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-508287-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
  71. ↑ Elms, A. C. (2007). Psychobiography and case study methods. In R. W. Robins, R. C. Fraley, & R. F. Krueger (Eds.), The Handbook of Research Methods in Personality Psychology. New York: Guilford Press, pp. 97-113.
  72. ↑ "Social Psychology and Social Relevance: Alan C Elms: Amazon.com: Books". www.amazon.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2026-07-07.
  73. ↑ "Personality in politics | WorldCat.org". search.worldcat.org. Retrieved 2026-07-07.
  74. ↑ "Elovitz, P. H. (2018). Todd Schultz: Psychobiographer of creative lives [Interview]. Clio's Psyche, 25(1), 88-97". Clio's Psyche. doi:10.70763/16fc18d787294ad5171100e33d05d4e2. Retrieved 2026-07-07.
  75. ↑ Schultz, William Todd, ed. (2005). Handbook of psychobiography. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-516827-3.
  76. ↑ Schultz, William Todd (2015). Torment saint : the life of Elliott Smith. Internet Archive. New York : Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-62040-784-4.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
  77. ↑ Schultz, William Todd (2022). The mind of the artist: personality and the drive to create. New York (N.Y.): Oxford university press. ISBN 978-0-19-761109-8.
  78. ↑ Schultz, William Todd; Lawrence, Stephanie (July 2017). "Psychobiography: Theory and method". American Psychologist. 72 (5): 434–445. doi:10.1037/amp0000130. ISSN 1935-990X.
  79. ↑ runyan, william m. "William M. Runyan - Independent Researcher". independent.academia.edu. Retrieved 2026-07-07.
  80. ↑ Runyan, William M. (1984). Life histories and psychobiography: explorations in theory and method (1. iss. as ... paperback, 1. publ. 1982 ed.). New York: Oxford Univ. Pr. ISBN 978-0-19-503486-8.
  81. ↑ "Prof. Claude-Hélène Mayer". University of Johannesburg. Retrieved 2026-07-07.
  82. ↑ Mayer, Claude-Hélène; Fouché, Paul, J.P.; Van Niekerk, Roelf, eds. (2021). Psychobiographical Illustrations on Meaning and Identity in Sociocultural Contexts. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-81238-6. ISBN 978-3-030-81237-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
  83. ↑ Mayer, Claude-Helene (2017). The Life and Creative Works of Paulo Coelho. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-59638-9. ISBN 978-3-319-59637-2.
  84. ↑ Mayer, Claude-Hélène; van Niekerk, Roelf; Fouché, Paul J.P.; Ponterotto, Joseph G., eds. (2023). Beyond WEIRD: Psychobiography in Times of Transcultural and Transdisciplinary Perspectives. doi:10.1007/978-3-031-28827-2. ISBN 978-3-031-28826-5.
  85. ↑ Krasovska, Nataliya; Mayer, Claude-Hélène (2021). "A Psychobiography of Viktor E. Frankl". SpringerBriefs in Psychology. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-70814-6. ISBN 978-3-030-70813-9. ISSN 2192-8363.
  86. ↑ Mayer, Claude-Hélène (2025), "Lessons Learned from Frithjof Bergmann and Salutogenesis in the Digital Age: A Psychobiographical Perspective", in van Niekerk, Annelize; Harry, Nisha; Coetzee, Melinde (eds.), Unlocking Sustainable Wellbeing in the Digital Age, Human Well-Being Research and Policy Making, Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland, pp. 305–323, doi:10.1007/978-3-031-87616-5_15, ISBN 978-3-031-87616-5
  87. ↑ Mayer, Claude-Hélène; Fouché, Paul J. P. (2021), "Lessons Learnt from Baruch Spinoza: Shame and Faith Development in the Light of Challenges in Contemporary Society", in Mayer, Claude-Hélène; Vanderheiden, Elisabeth; Wong, Paul T. P. (eds.), Shame 4.0: Investigating an Emotion in Digital Worlds and the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 247–274, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-59527-2_13, ISBN 978-3-030-59527-2, retrieved 2025-06-23
  88. ↑ Gay, p. 312-3
  89. ↑ Elms, p. 4
  90. ↑ Barzun, p. 203
  91. ↑ Elms, p. 10-11
  92. ↑ Elms, p. 8
  93. "Psychoanalyst Erik Erikson Dies at 91". The Washington Post. May 14, 1994. Retrieved July 10, 2026.
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Further reading

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  • Krasovska, N. & Mayer, C.-H. (2021). A psychobiography of Viktor E. Frankl. Using adversity for life transformation. Springer Briefs in Psychology. Cham, Switzerland: Springer Briefs.
  • Mayer, C.-H.; van Niekerk, R., Fouché, P.J. & Ponterotto, J. (2023). Beyond WEIRD: Psychobiography in Times of Transcultural and Transdisciplinary Perspectives. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
  • Mayer, C.-H., Fouché, P.J., & van Niekerk, R. (2021). Psychobiographical illustrations on meaning and identity in sociocultural contexts. Sociocultural Psychology of the Lifecourse Series. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillian. Mayer, C.-H. (2017). The life and creative works of Paulo Coelho. A Psychobiography from a Positive Psychology Perspective. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
  • Mayer, C.-H. & Kovary, Z. (2019). New Trends in Psychobiography. Cham, Switzerland: Springer
  • Ogilvie, Dan (2004). Fantasies of Flight. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Runyan, William (1982). Life Histories and Psychobiography. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Schultz, William Todd (2005). Handbook of Psychobiography. New York: Oxford University Press.
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