Life Histories And Psychobiography: Explorations In Theory And Method

Life Histories And Psychobiography: Explorations In Theory And Method

"The one essential book in the field" In this pathbreaking study, Runyan reviews and responds to major criticism of psychobiography and of the case study method, and suggests criteria for evaluating and improving in-depth studies of individual lives. Theoretical points are vividly illustrated with examples from the lives of (among others) Vincent Van Gogh, Emily Dickinson, Abraham Lincoln, Shakespeare, Malcolm X, Woodrow Wilson, Virginia Woolf, and several of Freud's classic case studies. "The most informative, clear, objective, and comprehensive book written on this topic to date. It is both the ideal text for a graduate course in psycho-history and the one essential book in the field which every library should have."--The Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences Review "Clinicians will find this book useful as they attempt to place life histories obtained in an explanatory, help-giving relationship into a scientific context...A reasoned, informative presentation supported by an adequate bibliography."--Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease "Entertaining as well as illuminating...an extremely valuable gathering of approaches to life history and psychobiography."--Qualitative Sociology "An outstanding work. In this small volume Runyan makes a clear and compelling case for the importance of idiographic studies to the understanding of human behavior."--New Ideas Psychology "Runyan's training [in academic psychology] enables him to approach the psychobiography debate with an engaging and informed skepticism. He employs the perspectives and parameters of empirical science to clarify the welter of facts and hypotheses on which assertions in psychobiography are often based."--Journal of Modern History About the Author William McKinley Runyan is at University of California, Berkeley.