Runyan Under the Big Psychobiographical/Psychohistorical Umbrella

Mac Runyan is an excellent scholar and colleague who I only recently came to know personally as a fellow psychobiographer. First, we worked together when he wrote the chapter, “Changing Visions of Psychology and Life Histories: A Personal Journey,” for my edited The Many Roads of the Builders of Psychohistory (2021, pp. 135-140). Next, he joined the Psychohistory Forum where he regularly participates in our bi-monthly Psychobiography Reading Group. I knew about his commitment to psychobiography as soon as his important Life Histories and Psychobiography book came out in the early 1980s.

Unfortunately, at that time, there was a major gulf between the work each of us was doing, which was caused by several factors. One, there was enormous division and little communication between those in California and on the East Coast. Two, for many if not most on the West Coast, everyone associated with the Journal of Psychohistory and organizations that Lloyd deMause founded were badmouthed as practicing wild psychohistory and were to be shunned. After discovering psychohistory while still teaching history in the late 1960s at Temple University, I was always cautious about Lloyd deMause when he went off the academic reservation, although I greatly appreciate his bringing like-minded colleagues together, doing breakthrough work on the history of childhood, and providing a journal for publishing our scholarship.

I first met Mac at an International Society for Political Psychology conference in Boston in 2003. At the Q&A session following a presentation, five of us spoke to each other. David Beisel, Jerry Piven, and I were sharply critical of being lumped in with deMause’s sometimes wild psychohistory. Both Mac and his fine colleague, Alan Elms, seemed open to what we were saying. It was good to finally meet both of them in person. In the 1990s I had already had some exchanges with Alan, who shared a common interest in Isaac Asimov with me. In fact, in 1996, I had written a most positive review of Alan’s Uncovering Lives: The Uneasy Alliance

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of Biography and Psychology (1994). Earlier this year, the Psychohistory Forum gave him a Lifetime Achievement Award (unfortunately, due to his declining health, it had to be given to Alan in absentia).

Knowing and doing some psychobiography with William McKinley Runyan has been a delight, as is publishing this much-deserved Festschrift honoring him. Mac Runyan is curious, insightful, knowledgeable, and eager to share his insights and knowledge with colleagues at our virtual meetings. In fact, no matter how long the online platform is left open after a meeting, he continues to exchange with others. My only regret is that because of my responsibilities to my wife, who is struggling with Parkinson’s disease, bad arthritis, and numerous other ailments, I can’t stay to join in these enjoyable conversations. Fortunately, I hear about them from our colleague Inna Rozentsvit and others.

In the wake of the horror of COVID-19, there has been a positive side effect for the Psychohistory Forum, its psychobiography subgroup, and other activities. Barred from meeting in person, now our virtual and hybrid meetings bring together colleagues from the East and West Coasts as well as many others from around the entire world. Getting to do psychobiography with Professor Runyan has been a great delight. It was with considerable pleasure that we recently granted Mac a Lifetime Achievement Award and that we are now publishing this Festschrift in his honor. I am proud to call him a colleague and friend.

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