Psychohistory is a transdisciplinary field of knowledge that represents an amalgam of psychology, history, psychoanalysis, political psychology, anthropology, ethnology, and related social sciences, art, and humanities. Psychohistorians examine the "why's" of history, utilizing the bottom-up approach rather than starting with psychological theories. They combine the insights of psychodynamic psychology, especially psychoanalysis, with the research methodology of the social sciences and humanities, to understand the emotional origin of the behavior of individuals, groups and nations, past and present. Psychohistorians are interested in examining one's childhood, personality, family dynamics, as well as dreams, overcoming adversity, creativity, group and political affiliations.

Description

thumb|right|Rembrandt's painting of the sacrifice of Isaac ([[Book of Genesis|Gen.22). Psychohistory holds that ritual child sacrifice once occurred in most cultures.]]

Psychohistorians claim to derive many of its concepts from areas that are perceived to be ignored by conventional historians and anthropologists as shaping factors of human history, in particular, the effects of parenting practice and child abuse. According to conventional historians "the science of culture is independent of the laws of biology and psychology" and "the determining cause of a social fact should be sought among social facts preceding and not among the states of individual consciousness".

Psychohistorians, on the other hand, suggest that social behavior such as crime and war may be a self-destructive re-enactment of earlier abuse and neglect; that unconscious flashbacks to early fears and destructive parenting could dominate individual and social behavior.

Psychohistory relies heavily on historical biography. Notable examples of psychobiographies are those of Lewis Namier, who wrote about the British House of Commons, and Fawn Brodie, who wrote about Thomas Jefferson.

Areas of study

There are three inter-related areas of psychohistorical study.

:1. The history of childhood – which looks at such questions as:

::*How have children been raised throughout history

::*How has the family been constituted

::*How and why have practices changed over time

::*The changing place and value of children in society over time

::*How and why our views of child abuse and neglect have changed

:2. Psychobiography – which seeks to understand individual historical people and their motivations in history.

:3. Group psychohistory – which seeks to understand the motivations of large groups, including nations, in history and current affairs. In doing so, psychohistory advances the use of group-fantasy analysis of political speeches, political cartoons and media headlines since the loaded terms, metaphors and repetitive words therein offer clues to unconscious thinking and behaviors.

Psychohistorians maintain that the difference is one of emphasis and that, in conventional study, narrative and description are central, while psychological motivation is hardly touched upon. Psychohistorians accuse most anthropologists and ethnologists of being apologists for incest, infanticide, cannibalism and child sacrifice. They maintain that what constitutes child abuse is a matter of objective fact, and that some of the practices which mainstream anthropologists apologize for (e.g., sacrificial rituals) may result in psychosis, dissociation and magical thinking.

Organizations

The Association for Psychohistory was founded by Lloyd deMause over 50 years ago. It had 19 branches around the globe and has published the Journal of Psychohistory since 1973.

The International Psychohistorical Association was also founded by Lloyd deMause, Paul Elovitz, and others in 1977 as a professional organization for the field of psychohistory. The association hosts an annual convention. It also offers theme-based conferences and publishes Psychohistory News.

The Psychohistory Forum, the interdisciplinary scholarly and professional non-profit organization, was founded in 1982 by historian and psychoanalyst Paul H. Elovitz, with Henry Lawton as a co-director. The Psychohistory Forum focuses on the application of psychoanalytic and psychological concepts to the study of historical events, cultural phenomena, and individual lives. It operates at the intersection of psychoanalysis, history, and related fields including psychobiography, sociology, political science, pedagogy and developmental neuroscience. This organization of academics, therapists, and laypeople holds regular scholarly meetings in New York City and at international conventions. It also sponsors Psychobiography Reading Groups and the online discussion group. The Psychohistory Forum publishes the peer-reviewed quarterly journal Clio's Psyche since 1994.

The Gesellschaft fur Psychohistorie und Politische Psychologie e.V. (GPPP), the German organization for psychohistory, was founded in 1992 by Dr. Ludwig Janus and others to explore the intersection of psychology, perinatal psychology and medicine, history, and political science. The GPPP holds yearly conferences (in German) and publishes the Jahrbuch für Psychohistorische Forschung.

Boston University offered the psychohistory courses at the undergraduate level from 2003 to 2006 by professor Anna Geifman, and has published course details. As per Anna Geifman, psychohistorians should not only look for political and economic factors that lead to historical events; they should examine the unconscious motivations of individuals and groups.

Notable Psychohistorians

  • Lloyd deMause, founder of The Institute for Psychohistory.
  • Peter Gay, Sterling Professor at Yale University, author.
  • Robert Jay Lifton, a psychiatrist specializing in psychological motivations for war and terrorism.
  • Jerome Lee Shneidman, Editor of the Bulletin of the International Psychohistorical Association, established the Seminar in the History of Legal and Political Thought and Institutions at Columbia University.
  • Vamik Volkan, psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, University of Virginia professor emeritus, peacemaker, and Nobel Prize nominee.
  • Fawn Brodie, Professor at UCLA, and historian and biographer of Thomas Jefferson, Joseph Smith, and others.
  • Joel Kovel, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst; co-founder of eco-socialism.
  • Alice Miller (psychologist), psychoanalyst and philosopher, noted for her books on parental child abuse.
  • Paul H. Elovitz, Professor of History at Ramapo College, NJ; Editor-in-Chief of Clio's Psyche

Lloyd deMause and Psychogenic Modes

Lloyd deMause has described a system of psychogenic modes (see below) which describe the range of styles of parenting he has observed historically and across cultures.

Psychohistorians have written much about changes in the human psyche through history; changes that they believe were produced by parents, and especially the mothers' increasing capacity to empathize with their children. Due to these changes in the course of history, different psychoclasses (or psychogenic modes) emerged. A psychoclass is a type of mentality that results from, and is associated with, a particular childrearing style, and in its turn influences the method of childrearing of the next generations. According to psychohistory theory, regardless of the changes in the environment, it is only when changes in childhood occur and new psychoclasses evolve that societies begin to progress.

The major psychogenic modes described by deMause are:

{| class="wikitable" width="100%"

|-

! Mode

! Childrearing characteristics

! Historical manifestations

|-

| rowspan="2" valign="top" | Infanticidal

| valign="top" | Early infanticidal childrearing:<br />Ritual sacrifice. High infanticide rates, incest, body mutilation, child rape and tortures.

| rowspan="2" | Child sacrifice and infanticide among tribal societies, Mesoamerica and the Incas; in Assyrian and Canaanite religions. Phoenicians, Carthaginians and other early states also sacrificed infants to their gods.

On the other hand, the relatively more enlightened Greeks and Romans exposed some of their babies ("late" infanticidal childrearing).

|-

| valign="top" | Late infanticidal childrearing:<br />While the young child is not overly rejected by the mother, many newborn babies, especially girls, are exposed to death.

|-

| valign="top" | Abandoning

| valign="top" | Early Christians considered a child as having a soul at birth, although possessed by evil tendencies. Routine infanticide was replaced by joining in the group fantasy of the sacrifice of Christ, who was sent by his father to be killed for the sins of others. especially in China, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Pakistan, New Guinea, and many other developing countries in Asia and North Africa, regions in which millions of women are "missing". The conflict of new and old psychoclasses is also highlighted in psychohistorians' thought. This is reflected in political contrasts – for instance, in the clash between Blue State and Red State voters in the contemporary United States – and in civil wars.

Another key psychohistorical concept is that of group fantasy, which deMause regards as a mediating force between a psychoclass's collective childhood experiences (and the psychic conflicts emerging therefrom), and the psychoclass's behavior in politics, religion and other aspects of social life.

A psychoclass for postmodern times

According to the psychogenic theory, since Neanderthal man most tribes and families practiced infanticide, child mutilation, incest and beating of their children throughout prehistory and history. Presently the Western socializing mode of childrearing is considered much less abusive in the field, though this mode is not yet entirely free of abuse. In the opening paragraph of his seminal essay "The Evolution of Childhood" (first article in The History of Childhood), DeMause states:

<blockquote>The history of childhood is a nightmare from which we have only recently begun to awaken. The further back in history one goes, the lower the level of childcare, and the more likely children are to be killed, abandoned, beaten, terrorized and sexually abused.</blockquote>

There is notwithstanding an optimistic trait in the field. In a world of "helping mode" parents, deMause believes, violence of any other sort will disappear as well, along with magical thinking, mental disorders, wars and other inhumanities of man against man. Although, the criticism has been made that this itself is a form of magical thinking.

Criticisms

There are no departments dedicated to "psychohistory" in any institution of higher learning, although some history departments have run courses in it. Psychohistory remains a controversial field of study, facing criticism in the academic community, with critics referring to it as a pseudoscience. Psychohistory uses a plurality of methodologies, and it is difficult to determine which is appropriate to use in each circumstance. Yet this "plurality" is quite circumscribed.

In 1973, historian Hugh A. Trevor-Roper dismissed the field of psychohistory entirely in response to the publication of Walter Langer's The Mind of Adolf Hitler. He contended that psychohistory's methodology rested "on a defective philosophy" and was "vitiated by a defective method."

DeMause has received criticism on several levels. His formulations have been criticized for being insufficiently supported by credible research. He has also received criticism for being a strong proponent of the "black legend" view of childhood history (i.e. that the history of childhood was above all a history of progress, with children being far more often badly mistreated in the past). Similarly, his work has been called a history of child abuse, not childhood. The grim perspective of childhood history is known from other sources, e.g. Edward Shorter's The Making of the Modern Family and Lawrence Stone's The Family, Sex and Marriage in England 1500-1800. However, deMause received criticism for his repeated, detailed descriptions on childhood atrocities:

<blockquote>The reader is doubtless already familiar with examples of these psychohistorical "abuses." There is a significant difference, however, between the well-meaning and serious, if perhaps simplistic and reductionistic, attempt to understand the psychological in history and the psychohistorical expose that can at times verge on historical pornography. For examples of the more frivolous and distasteful sort of psychohistory, see Journal of Psychohistory. For more serious and scholarly attempts to understand the psychological dimension of the past, see The Psychohistory Review.</blockquote>

Recent psychohistory has also been criticized for being overly-entangled with DeMause, whose theories are not representative of the entire field.

See also

References

Sources

  • deMause, Lloyd (2002). The Emotional Life of Nations, Publisher: Other Press; (available online at no cost)
  • Lawton, Henry W., The Psychohistorian's Handbook, New York: Psychohistory Press, (1989)
  • Loewenberg, Peter, Decoding the Past: The Psychohistorical Approach, Transaction Pub, (2002)
  • Stannard, David E., Shrinking History, On Freud and the Failure of Psychohistory, Oxford University Press, (1980). A critique of the Freudian approach to psychohistory.
  • Szaluta, Jacques, Psychohistory: Theory and Practice, Publisher Peter Lang, (1999)
  • The Institute for Psychohistory. This website contains over 1,500 pages of psychohistorical articles and books.
  • International Psychohistorical Association. The professional organization for the field of psychohistory.
  • Blind Trust: Leaders & followers in times of crisis: An acclaimed documentary film about the life and work of Vamik Volkan.
  • Clio's Psyche and The Psychohistory Forum: Psychological and Historical Insight without jargon.
  • German Society for Psychohistorical Research (in German).
  • The Institute for Social Psychohistory. Promotes research into and advocates for the field of social psychohistory.