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.

Section One. How to Write a Psychobiography Chapter 1. Introducing Psychobiograpy, William Todd Schultz Chapter 2. Evolving Conceptions of Psychobiography and the Study of Lives: Encounters with Psychoanalysis, Personality Psychology, and Historical Science, William McKinley Runyan Chapter 3. How to Strike Psychological Paydirt in Biographical Data, William Todd Schultz Chapter 4. What Psychobiographers Might Learn from Personality Psychology, Dan P. McAdams Chapter 5. If the Glove Fits: Choosing a Theory in Psychobiography, Alan C. Elms Chapter 6. How to Critically Evaluate Alternative Explanations of Life Events: The Case of Van Gogh, William M. Runyan Chapter 7. Multiple Case Psychobiography: Method and Theory, Kate Isaacson Chapter 8. Diane Arbus' Photographic Autobiography: Method and Theory Applied, William Todd Schultz Section Two. A Psychobiograpy of Artists Chapter 9. Nothing Alive Can Be Calculated: The Psychobiographical Study of Artists, William Todd Schultz Chapter 10. Twelve Ways to Say 'Lonesome': Assessing Error and Control in the Music of Elvis Presley, Alan C. Elms & Bruce Heller Chapter 11. Mourning, Melancholia, and Sylvia Plath, William Todd Schultz Chapter 12. Margaret's Smile, Dan Ogilvie Chapter 13. Edith Wharton and Ethan Frome: A Psychobiographical Exploration, James Anderson Section Three. Psychobiography of Psychologists Chapter 14. The Psychobiographical Study of Psychologists, James Anderson Chapter 15. Freud as Leonardo: Why the First Psychobiography Went Wrong, Alan C. Elms Chapter 16. Four, Two, or One? Gordon Allport and the Unique Personality, Nicole Barenbaum Chapter 17. Nietzsche's Madness, Kyle Arnold & George Atwood Chapter 18. Erikson and Psychobiography, Psychobiography and Erikson, Irving Alexander Chapter 19. From the Book of Mormon to the Operational Definition: The Existential Project of S.S. Stevens, an Nicholson Section Four. Psychobiography of Political Figures, Alan C. Elms & Anna V. Song Chapter 21. Osama Bin Laden: The Sum of All Fears, Anthony Dennis Chapter 22. In His Father's Shadow: George W. Bush and the Politics of Personal Transformation, Stanley Renshon Chapter 23. Elusion, Illusion, and Kim Jong Il, Anna V. Song Chapter 24. Psychobiography in Context: Predicting the Behavior of Tyrants, Betty Glad

"The book certainly deserves the designation 'handbook' because it not only provides sections on methodology but also blends the two to illustrate critical points about the field...This volume should see wide use."--CHOICE |k No