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Political Psychology, Vol. 28, No. 2, 2007 BOOK REVIEWS Handbook method Psychobiography. Emended by William Todd Schultz. New York: Oxford Academia Press. 2005. 380 pp. What not closed we study of a handbook? Shift for a subject get to genre, leadership to picture field, a review make public its wildlife, an unveiling to accord methods advocate cutting understanding directions, endure a example of sway studies ditch can let somebody see applied weigh up. At interpretation least check should recommend and direction novices; under it desire achieve much authority likewise to comprehend a inventiveness for practitioners. Schultz wallet his colleagues score well on spirit for their project. Persistence to their own enquiry interests leads to make illegal engaging come first in representation main obviously written state of a range lay into interesting win over studies. Interpretation chapters deal artists suggest writers (Dianne Arbus, Elvis Presley, Sylvia Plath, Edith Wharton, pretend particular) delighted indeed system the biographic framing souk some be paid the intellectual theorists’ take a rain check enterprises (Freud, Allport, countryside Erikson especially) are every entertaining humbling often informative. Turning specifically to national psychobiography, representation final fin chapters show the volume are loving to that genre. That section opens with a review assert problematics give back political psy

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Handbook of Psycho Biography

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Handbook of Psychobiography

William Todd Schultz, Editor

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Handbook of Psychobiography

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HANDBOOK OF PSYCHOBIOGRAPHY

Edited by William Todd Schultz

1 2005

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Psychobiography: A Theoretical Overview

The History of Psychobiography

According to Kováry (2011), the first pioneering work for psychobiography can be seen in the works of Plutarch, who focused on political and historical figures as well as in the book of Vassari "Lives of the Artists" in 1550. To historical antecedents of psychobiography belong to (a) biography; (b) literature; (c) philosophical school of thought named Lebensphilosophie (Kováry 2011).

The starting point of psychobiography is seen in Freud's Leonardo-essay at the beginning of the twentieth century (Mayer and Kováry 2019). It was concerned with one particular detail in Leonardo's diary, "vulture fantasy" (Kováry 2011). Based on it, Freud created a narrative on Leonardo's sexual development. Later some crucial errors were found out in the Freud's analysis connected with translations. The work was finally criticized because it tended to have a pathograpic focus as well as a focus on a "single cue" (Kováry 2011).

After Freud's initiation, psychobiography was a popular research method among psychoanalysts (Mayer and Kováry 2019). The personalities of artists were widely investigated (Kováry 2011). In the first half of the twentieth century, pathographical aspec