About Us

Overview

Clio’s Psyche is a scholarly journal founded in 1994. It is published by the Psychohistory Forum, an organization of academics, therapists, and laypeople, founded in 1982 and holding regular scholarly meetings in Manhattan and at international conventions.

Editorial Board

  • C. Fred Alford, PhD University of Maryland
  • James W. Anderson, PhD Northwestern University
  • David Beisel, PhD RCC-SUNY
  • Donald Carveth, PhD York University
  • Marilyn Charles, PhD, ABPP Austen Riggs Center
  • Lawrence J. Friedman, PhD Harvard University
  • Ken Fuchsman, EdD University of Connecticut
  • Peter Loewenberg, PhD UCLA
  • Peter Petschauer, PhD Appalachian State University
  • Vamik Volkan, MD University of Virginia

Mission Statement

Our mission is to enlarge and disseminate the related paradigms of applied psychoanalysis, political psychology, psychobiography, and of 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 Psychohistory Forum research groups
  • To grow the psychohistorical community and to 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 and discussion
  • 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, memorializing the work of those who have built it, and to make available online obituaries of those who die to assist in the intergenerational transmission of ideas

Editor-in-Chief

Dr. Paul H. Elovitz, PhD, began organizing scholarly meetings when he started as a faculty member at Ramapo College and then as convener of the Institute for Psychohistory Saturday Workshops (1975-1982). In 1982 he founded the Psychohistory Forum to nurture psychohistorical research and continues to lead its Executive Council. In 1994 he created Clio’s Psyche (cliospsyche.org) to publish its scholarship, of which he is Editor-in-Chief. Prof. Elovitz is a historian, psychoanalytic researcher, and author of about 400 publications, covering presidential psychobiography, teaching, documenting the field of psychohistory, and much more. After taking his doctoral degree in history, he trained and practiced as a psychoanalyst, and in 2019 was made the first Research Psychoanalyst by the New Jersey Institute for Psychoanalysis. Elovitz is the author of The Making of Psychohistory, editor of The Many Roads of the Builders of Psychohistory, and edited or wrote eight other books. He is a founding member and past president of the International Psychohistorical Association (1978-) who serves on its leadership council and presents at all meetings. Prof. Elovitz is a founding faculty member at Ramapo College who previously taught at Temple, Rutgers, and Fairleigh Dickinson universities.

Awards

The Psychohistory Forum offers four awards:

  • The Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (minus several volumes). For an outstanding young psychohistorian who publishes an outstanding article in Clio’s Psyche, as well as serving as a Guest Editor for our publication. The books are used, but in good condition.
  • The Sydney Halpern Award for the Best Psychohistorical Idea, normally in a published article or book.  This award has previously been granted in the amounts of $150 and $300 to individuals who created the first  psychohistory listserv, and who achieved excellence in editing.  One lives in California and the other in Canada. ($300 remains in the award fund.)
  • The Young Scholar Membership Award. A year’s membership including subscription to Clio’s Psyche, granted to those nominated by a member or practicing psychohistorian.  Awardees would either have or be in the process of receiving an advanced graduate degree or psychoanalytic certification.
  • The Psychohistory Forum Student Award. For the best article in Clio’s Psyche by a student at any level.  A one year subscription is provided.

There are a variety of awards available from other organizations such as the Robert Stoller Foundation, the International Society for Political Psychology, and the International Psychohistorical Association. These are usually listed toward the end of The Best of Clio’s Psyche.