What Brought Me to Psychohistory

article

Anne Dietrich

Abstract

In this article, from the journal’s section on the future of psychohistory, the author recounts the origins of an interest in the field. The author describes adolescent reading of psychoanalysis, which prompted curiosity about human motivation and behavior, and undergraduate study of the history of psychology from the ancient Greeks to the Behavioral and Cognitive movements in the twentieth-century United States, with a philosophy minor. The author reports teaching the history of psychology as an undergraduate, an enduring interest in developing theories, and a view that behavior is complex, multifaceted, and overdetermined. The author recounts examining family history during college, including how past experiences shaped a career choice in interpersonal trauma. The author maintains that understanding why earlier generations’ mistakes occurred makes it possible to choose not to repeat them, at both individual and societal levels. The author also summarizes education at Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia, work with trauma survivors since 1987, teaching since 1992, research on violence risk assessment and on PTSD, Complex PTSD, and revictimization, and an office in the Canadian Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation. The author concludes that knowledge of the past is important for preventing repetition of past errors, particularly societal ones, and that psychohistory will be a tool in continued study.

Keywords:

adolescence, Anne Dietrich, human behavior, human motivation, psychoanalysis, psychobiography, psychohistory, psychology, Sigmund Freud

My interest in the field of psychohistory originated during my adolescence, when I came across some writings on psychoanalysis in my father’s library. Although much of what I read on psychoanalysis was at that time beyond my understanding, my adolescent quest for “truth” and the interesting ideas of Freud sparked my curiosity regarding human motivation and behavior. It was not until my undergraduate years as a beginning student of psychology that I became better able to understand the complexity of the history of human emotion, thought, and behavior.

As an undergraduate, I was intrigued with my required courses in the history of both ancient and modern psychology. We looked at the origins of the study of human psychological and social functioning, beginning with ancient Greek scholars, continuing through Medieval times, the Enlightenment, and the Victorian era. We then moved from Vienna to the Behavioral and Cognitive movements in the United States in the 20th century. The history of humankind, in particular the history of the study of the human mind, so compelled my interest that I declared a minor in philosophy in addition to a major in psychology, and I studied ancient philosophy, logic, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of science. I worked as a teaching assistant as an undergraduate, and taught the history of psychology.

Theories have always interested me. I enjoy analyzing the theories of others, modifying them and/or developing new theories. Why do we act as we do? What motivates us? Why do other individuals do what they do? Why do groups function in certain ways? The answers to these questions are complex, multifaceted, and overdetermined. I believe that what came before most definitely influences what is yet to come.

During college, I also began looking at my own personal history—how my own painful past experiences had shaped my adult path and had affected my career choice and my area of specialization (interpersonal trauma). I came to see how the paths of my parents had been shaped by their own histories, and likewise for my grandparents. I came, perhaps most importantly, to realize that I had a choice in not repeating with my children the mistakes of my forebears. Such choice entails understanding why those mistakes occurred. Such understanding is necessary at both the individual level and the societal level for positive global change to occur.

I plan on continuing my study of psychohistory—to learn more about why events in the past occurred as they did. It is my conviction that this knowledge is very important in preventing future repetitions of past errors, particularly at the societal level. To ignore the past is, in effect, to deny change and progress.

Now I will more systematically describe my education and its relation to my career and intellectual interests. After completing my BA (with honors) and MA degrees in psychology at Simon Fraser University, I became a PhD candidate at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Since 1987 I have been working with survivors of trauma in various contexts. I have approximately 12 years’ experience doing volunteer work with various populations, including trauma survivors, and approximately six years’ experience working in hospital settings, which includes conducting psychological assessments and, more recently, group therapy for persons with severe personality disorders. I have taught psychology since 1992 as a teaching assistant and, for the past several years, as a part-time instructor at UBC. I have done research on assessment of risk of violence and, most recently, research on the relationship between Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Complex PTSD, and Revictimization in adult survivors of

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childhood trauma. I have also been involved in writing treatment guidelines for PTSD, and am currently the Secretary Treasurer for the Canadian Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation. Psychohistory will be an important tool in my quest for further understanding.

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