Home

The next meeting of the Psychohistory Forum will be virtual and on psychoanalytic and psychohistorical pedagogy on January 30, 2021, from 10:30-1:00 with three presenters.

Call for Papers:

Call for Papers due on June 15, 2021 are on:
Coping In Our Anxious World
The Paranoid Tradition in American Politics

Additional Call for Papers are on a variety of special issues. Some upcoming Call for Papers are on The Psychology of Film and Screens Our Anxious Digitally Connected World.

Links enabling you to view some recent Psychohistory Forum meetings.
Lawrence Friedman Psychohistory Forum  Meeting, “Erik Erikson Retrospective” 4-13-19
Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3
Brian D’agostino Psyohistory Forum Meeting 3-9-19 (TBA)
David Lotto Meeting, “The Male Perspective on Sex and Power in the Age of #MeToo Meeting Report” 1-26-2019
Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4

Welcome to Clio’s Psyche and the Psychohistory Forum

Our mission is to enlarge and disseminate the related paradigms of applied psychoanalysis, political psychology, psychobiography, and psychological history. We seek to do this in non-technical language.

Our goal is always to stimulate psychohistorical thought, publications, research, and teaching. Some specific objectives are as follows:

  • To encourage the general public to think psychohistorically
  • To disseminate psychohistorical knowledge
  • To communicate with Psychohistory Forum members and Clio’s Psyche subscribers
  • To assist the networking of colleagues, especially in the Forum research groups
  • To grow the psychohistorical community and the larger group of people interested in what we do
  • To help clinicians focus on history and current events
  • To assist academics in all disciplines — history, literature, political science, psychology, sociology, anthropology — to utilize the insights and tools of psychoanalysis, psychobiography, and psychology
  • To foster psychohistorical debate, discussion, listening, publication, research, and thought
  • To help transmit the knowledge of an older generation of psychohistorians to those just entering the field
  • To research and publish the history of our field, honoring the work of those who have built it
  • To make available online obituaries of those who die, memorializing their work

In conclusion, we welcome others joining with us to achieve the goals articulated in this mission statement.

1994   2019


Paul H. Elovitz, PhD
Editor, Clio’s Psyche

 

Announcements and Forthcoming Events

Spring 2020, Volume 26 Number 3, of Clio’s Psyche is now available.  See Table of Contents below.  To join/subscribe, see Membership.  Back Issue Spring 2019, Volume 25 Number 3, can be viewed online.

Until further notice, our Psychohistory Forum Work-In-Progress Seminars will be online.  The Psychology of the Presidential Election meeting will be on October 31st with the following presenters: Dan McAdams (Northwestern University), “The Episodic Man: Donald Trump,” Denis O’Keefe (NYU), “Donald Trump and Stochastic Terrorism,” and Paul H. Elovitz (Ramapo College), “Reflections on Biden’s Personality.”  Jim Anderson’s (Northwestern University/psychoanalyst) presentation on “Heinz Kohut’s Vulnerable Self” will be held when it is safe for him to fly from Chicago and the group to meet in person.  Additional seminars will be announced online. 

Interview with Paul H. Elovitz, PhD

Author of The Making of Psychohistory

(Conducted by Ken Fuchsman, EdD,

week of July 2, 2018)

Read Excerpts from Ch. 1 and Ch. 2 and Table of Contents from The Making of Psychohistory.

NOW AVAILABLE: The Making of Psychohistory: Origins, Controversies, and Pioneering Contributors by Dr. Paul H. Elovitz, PhD – Ordering information through the publisher (as a paperback ISBN # 978-1-138-58749-6, it is reduced at checkout at the Routledge publisher’s site with the code FLR40 from $38.95 to $31.16).

Most Recent Tables of Contents

Clio’s Psyche

Understanding the “Why” of Culture, Current Events, History, and Society

Fall 2020                Volume 27 Number 1

Maccoby’s The President We Need Symposium
The President We Need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 
Michael Maccoby
Analysis and Data from an Economist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
Robert Shapiro
Reflections on Trump and Maccoby’s Article  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 
Judith Harris
The President We Need is a Unifier, Not a Divider  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 
Charles Heckscher
Obstacles to Electing the Leaders We Need  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24
Ken Fuchsman
President Biden Would be an Empathetic Healer & Knowledgeable Problem Solver . . . 27
Paul H. Elovitz
Who Is “We”?  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31
Benjamin Wegner
Michael Maccoby Responds to the Commentaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Michael Maccoby
Election 2020, Politics, and COVID-19
The Abusive and Troubled Childhood of Donald Trump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Sven Fuchs with Peter W. Petschauer
Binary Thinking Meets Chaotic Fragmentation in the 2020 Election  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Justin Frank
When a Psychoanalyst Marries a Historian: Brookhiser and Safer  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Paul H. Elovitz
Unmasking an Agenda: COVID-19 and America’s Indifference to Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Peter W. Petschauer
Donald Trump: Master Marketer or Malignant Manipulative Masochist?  . . . . . . . . . . . .61
Burton Norman Seitler
Death at the COVID-19 Front  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65
Peter W. Petschauer
COVID-19: Denial, Mourning, George Floyd, and Healing Our Losses  . . . . . . . . . . . . .67
Paul H. Elovitz
2020 Election and COVID-19  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73
Dorothea Leicher
America’s Response to the Plague  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
David Lotto
A Distant Mirror: Modi, Trump, and Pandemic Politics in an Authoritarian Age . . . . . . 82
Souvik Raychaudhuri, Brian D’Agostino, and Sagnik Dhar
Leadership at a Loss: Why Britain and the U.S. Mishandled the COVID-19 Crisis . . . . .87
Nick Duffell
The Psychology of Living with COVID-19
COVID-19 in Spain: Quarantine Songs  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Abigail Jareño Gómez
Personal Reflections on Living in the Altered State of COVID-19  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Ruth M. Lijtmaer
“We Can’t Breathe”: Pandemic, Dreams, and Helping  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Juhani Ihanus
Reflections Concerning the Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Ludwig Janus
Psychohistorical Interviews
An Interview with C. Fred Alford  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .107
Matthew H. Bowker
Marilyn Fabe: Psychobiographer  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
James William Anderson
Lloyd deMause Memorial
Lloyd deMause’s Odyssey  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  .125
Juhani Ihanus
Pearls of Wisdom from Lloyd deMause  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .130
Brett Kahr
Remembering Lloyd deMause  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
John Jacob Hartman
Book Reviews
Volkan’s Remarkable Application of Psychoanalysis to Society  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .137
John Jacob Hartman
Psychobiography is Trending Among Psychologists  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Benjamin Wegner
Letter to the Editor
Lawton’s Pathbreaking “The Myth of Altruism” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .144
David R. Beisel
Young Scholar Research Members of the Forum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .145
Bulletin Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Call for Papers  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 & 147

Spring 2020           Volume 26 Number 3

The Psychology of Altruism, Service, and Generativity
Exploring My Impulses for Service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .265
Paul H. Elovitz
Personal Circumstance and Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .273
Donna Crawley
Finding the Roots of Altruism in Self and Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Joyce M. Rosenberg
Auguste Comte Coined the Word Altruism: The Cornerstone of Positivism . .281
Brigitte Demeure
Bavaria’s Spring 2020. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .287
Peter Webb Petschauer
Compassion During Plagues  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Samuel Cohn, Jr.
Motivations for Patronage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .293
Peter Webb Petschauer
When Giving Never Seems to Be Enough . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .300
Talia B. Shafir
The False Self in Service to Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
Jeff Meyerhoff
From Altruism to Generativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
Burton Norman Seitler
COVID-19 is Our Current Test of Altruism
Warm April Morning During the Pandemic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Judith Harris
Politics and Trump in 2020
Free Associations on Election 2020: What Politicians Mean to Us . . . . . . . . . 313
Paul H. Elovitz
Trump in Us: The President as a Psychic Container . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Susan Kavaler-Adler
Coronavirus (COVID-19) 2020, or the Natural History of Disease. . . . . . . . . .321
Howard F. Stein
Insights on Trump from a Pathbreaking New Book  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .322
Paul H. Elovitz
An Interview of a Major Builder
A Finnish Psychohistorian: Juhani Ihanus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .328
Denis O’Keefe with Paul H. Elovitz
Comics in American Fantasy
Blaming Pop Culture throughout History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
Nicole D’Andria
Split-Personalities, Narcissism, Grandiosity, and Loneliness in Our Comics . .345
Tom Ferraro
What’s a Story to a God?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Joshua Heiliczer
Psychological Insights on the Villain Thanos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .351
Philip Infermo
The Many Roads of the Builders of Psychohistory: Part III
Biographical Studies
Judith Kestenberg: Advocate for Holocaust Child Survivors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
Eva Fogelman
Rudolph Binion’s Frau Lou Psychohistory Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .358
Deborah Hayden
The Passion of Elisabeth Young-Bruehl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
Judith Harris
Avner Falk: A Prolific Israeli Psychohistorian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
Joyce M. Rosenberg
Ralph Colp: My Darwinian Psychohistorian and Psychiatrist Father . . . . . . . .371
Judith Colp Rubin
Lawrence J. Friedman’s Art of Fusing History and Psychology . . . . . . . . . .376
Mark I. West
Book Reviews
A Good Life after Surviving Ravensbrück . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
Peter Webb Petschauer
Loss and Trauma Incurred in the Search for Life in America  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
Paul H. Elovitz
—————————————————————————————————
Bulletin Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
Call for Papers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .312, 329, and 387
Psychohistory Forum Seminar Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387

Winter 2020           Volume 26 Number 2

The Many Roads of the Builders of Psychohistory: Part II
The Rich and Varied Journeys of Psychohistorians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Judith Harris
My Development as a Psychohistorian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .132
Dan Burston
Building Psychohistory in France and Switzerland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Marc-André Cotton
Applying History and Psychohistory as a Business Consultant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .143
Jack Fitzpatrick
Psychohistory in the United Kingdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Brett Kahr
Peter Loewenberg’s Pioneering Road Traveled as a Psychohistorian . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Peter Loewenberg
My Learning Journey From Behaviorism to Psychohistory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Michael Maccoby
A Winding Road to Psychobiography and Psychohistory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .164
Joseph G. Ponterotto
Dig Where You Stand! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Heinrich J. Reiß (Reiss)
My Life in Applied Psychoanalysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .174
Arnold D. Richards
Using Psychoanalysis to Understand Irrationality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .178
Robert Samuels
Psychohistory: A Road I Did Not Know I Would Take . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Howard F. Stein
Living and Dreaming the Traumatic History of My Parents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .188
Inna Rozentsvit
A Student’s Experience in Psychohistory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .193
David Cifelli
A Symposium on Male Reflections on Sex and Power
A Masculine Perspective on Sex and Power in the Age of #MeToo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .196
David Lotto
This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Matthew H. Bowker
A Different Man’s Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .211
Michael Britton
Love, Attachment, Nurturance, and Psychoanalysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Paul H. Elovitz
Men’s Envy, Women’s Seduction, and Self-Destructive Zero Tolerance. . . . . . . . . . . .218
Susan Kavaler-Adler
A Female Perspective on Sex and Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .222
Judith Logue
A Greek Myth, “Mothers’ Day,” and Female and Male Fear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .226
Merle Molofsky
“He Desires Me; He Loves Me Not:” Freudian Sexual Economics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .231
Marcia Anne Newton
Insidious Male Dominance and the Hope of #MeToo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Denis J. O’Keefe
Sex is Different for Women than for Men . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .238
Ellen Toronto
David Lotto Responds to the Commentaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
David Lotto
—————————————————————————————————
Passing the Flame: Narrative Trajectories of Trauma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .244
Aaron Denham
Film and Book Reviews
China’s One Child Nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .247
Arlene Kramer Richards
Exploring the Moral Dimensions of the Psyche with Carveth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .250
Molly Castelloe
Destructive Childhood Experiences and the Penchant for Authoritarians . . . . . . . . 253
Peter Webb Petschauer
Why Does It Still Trouble Me So? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Peter Webb Petschauer
—————————————————————————————————
Bulletin Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Call for Papers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .260 & 263

Fall 2019                   Volume 26 Number 1

The Many Roads of the Builders of Psychohistory
The Builders of Psychohistory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Paul H. Elovitz
My Journey as a Psychobiographer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
James William Anderson
From History to Psychohistory: A Personal Journey Revisited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
David R. Beisel
Researching Health and Therapy in Nazi Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16
Geoffrey Cocks
How the Holocaust and Feminism Led Me to Become a Psychohistorian. . . . . . . . . . . 21
Eva Fogelman
From Studying Freud to Psychohistorical Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Ken Fuchsman
John Hartman’s Road to Group Psychohistory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
John Jacob Hartman
Coming to Terms with Psychohistory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Juhani Ihanus
Achieving a Psychohistorical World View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42
Denis O’Keefe
My Circuitous Route to Psychohistory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47
Peter Petschauer
My Path to Using Psychohistory as an American Historian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52
Martin H. Quitt
Searching for the French Revolution, Mandela, and Beyond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57
Barry Shapiro
A Memoir of Psychohistory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Charles B. Strozier
The Origins of My Psychohistorical Scholarship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66
Herbert Barry III
My Life as a Psychohistorian Working for Peace.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71
Vamık Volkan
School Shootings
Why Do Children Have to Defend Against Being Shot at School? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77
Mary Coleman
Elegy for the Children of Newtown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Judith Harris
Trauma of School Shootings, Mental Illness, and Opposition to Gun Control . . . . . . .81
Jamshid A. Marvasti & Claire C. Olivier
A Mother’s Anguish. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Debra Anderson
Keeping Vigil: A Professor’s Response to a University Shooting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Mark I. West
Reflections on the Contagion of Domestic Gun Terrorism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Paul H. Elovitz
Killing US . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Peter Petschauer
—————————————————————————————————
Trauma and Blame in the Israel-Palestine Conflict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .96
Barry Shapiro
My Literary Childhood Dream Fulfilled. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .102
Arnold Richards
Meeting Report
Erik Erikson Revisited. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .105
Paul H. Elovitz
Book Reviews
Psychoanalysis at the Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .108
Candace Orcutt
Psychoanalysts Need to Apply their Knowledge to the Public Arena . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Paul H. Elovitz
Leadership Fueled through Adversity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .113
Joseph G. Ponterotto
Memorial
Remembering Professor Norman Itzkowitz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .117
Vamık Volkan
Letters to the Editor
The Heidelberg Psychohistory Conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Peter Petschauer
The Attraction of Psychohistory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Alice Lombardo Maher
—————————————————————————————————
Bulletin Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123