Clio’s Psyche Call for Papers:
Integrating Psychoanalytic Concepts
into Modern Psychohistorical & Psychobiographical Scholarship
(Articles are to be 500 – 2,500 words including a brief abstract, keywords, & short biography of the author.)
Due: October 1st, 2026, for the Fall 2026 Issue
Dear Colleagues,
Our members are open to psychological and psychoanalytic concepts, and we yearn for them to apply these to their articles and scholarship. This openness is reflected in the Psychohistory Forum’s impressive attendance at its Work-in-Progress, Psychobiography Reading Group, and Lifetime Achievement Award meetings. It is our strong feeling that there needs to be much more integration of psychoanalytic phenomena and terminology into the actual writing that is published in Clio’s Psyche, the Journal of Psychohistory, the Newsletter of the IPhA, and elsewhere to enrich it and also to remedy the confusion of tongues so often happening in other inter- and transdisciplinary fields. This does not mean we desire to impose psychoanalytic jargon or theories, but we do think it would be extremely helpful if these ideas were integrated to a greater extent than they are now.
We invite submissions that employ psychoanalytic concepts to explore historical events, figures, and social movements. Our approach prioritizes bottom-up scholarship that builds understanding from primary and secondary sources rather than imposing theoretical frameworks or diagnostic criteria onto historical material. We are particularly interested in your work demonstrating how psychoanalytic insights can enrich historical understanding by illuminating unconscious motivations, ego defense mechanisms, and the influence of childhood and formative experiences on historical actors and events.
We welcome responses to the symposium article The Oppressed Become the Despots: Shulamith Firestone and the “Sweet Promise of Sisterhood” Betrayed (by Jeffrey Rubin). Click on the link to read it online. To download the article, use this link:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ravmu4b06ukm06jt72be3/Rubin-The-Oppressed-Become-Despots-Rubin-Clio-Symposium.pdf?rlkey=ia4nyo4wa0efjufwhlcwooaun&dl=1.
The Value of Case Studies in Psychohistorical Research
Case studies, like personal analysis, remain the cornerstone of psychoanalytic understanding and can likewise enrich psychohistorical scholarship. We encourage submissions that develop detailed historical case studies using psychoanalytic frameworks. Notable examples from psychoanalytic tradition that might inspire psychohistorical approaches include Freud’s analyses of patients like Dora (transference and dream analysis), Little Hans (childhood phobias and the Oedipus complex), the Wolf Man (primal scenes), and the Rat Man (obsessional neurosis), as well as Winnicott’s work with patients like the Piggle (child development) and Bob (regression in therapy). Klein’s analysis of Richard during World War II and the foundational Anna O. case that introduced the “talking cure” also demonstrate how individual cases can illuminate broader theoretical concepts.
Case studies in psychohistory can serve multiple functions: theory building, methodological instruction, ethical engagement with historical subjects, and integration of diverse disciplinary perspectives. Through these detailed examinations, we can honor the unique subjectivity of historical figures while developing insights into broader historical processes.
Psychobiographical Essays
We welcome psychobiographical essays that utilize psychoanalytic concepts while maintaining curiosity and empathy toward their subjects. The art of psychobiography involves achieving an in-depth understanding of famous and ordinary people through careful examination of the available evidence, with attention to formative experiences, developmental trajectories, and unconscious processes. Effective psychobiography avoids imposing diagnostic labels while still applying meaningful psychological frameworks, illuminating the subject’s inner world and external actions.
Some possible psychoanalytic/psychological topics to write about include:
The Unconscious in Historical Decision-Making: Explore how unconscious motivations and conflicts influenced pivotal historical decisions and turning points.
Transference in Historical Relationships: Analyze how historical figures projected past relationships onto contemporary ones, influencing political alliances, conflicts, and decisions.
Countertransference as a Historical Research Tool: Utilize the researcher’s emotional responses to historical subjects as data for understanding the subject’s impact on others.
Regression to Dependence in Societal Crisis: Examine how societies collectively regress under stress and the leadership that emerges in response.
Projection and Projective Identification in International Relations: Analyze how nations project unwanted aspects of themselves onto other countries and then react to these projections.
Identification and Introjection Processes in Identity Formation: Examine how individuals and groups internalize aspects of significant others, cultural heroes, religious figures, and family members, shaping ethnic, social, cultural, and political identities and perpetuating transgenerational values and traditions.
Conversion Symptoms in Historical Contexts: Explore how psychological conflicts manifested as physical symptoms in historical figures or collective movements.
The Oedipus Complex in Political Power: Investigate how Oedipal dynamics influenced succession crises and power transitions throughout history.
Transitional Phenomena in Social Movements: Apply Winnicott’s concepts of transitional objects and intermediate space to understand cultural and political transitions.
Winnicottian “Survival of the Object” in Leadership & Life Transitions: Explore how institutions and societies process the destruction and survival of leadership figures.
True and False Self in Public Figures: Investigate the development of authentic versus compliant selves in response to societal expectations and political pressures.
Good-Enough Mothering and Leadership Styles: Explore how early maternal attunement (or lack thereof) shaped leadership approaches and governance philosophies.
Object Relations in Historical Conflicts: Analyze how early relations with significant objects manifested in historical group dynamics and international relations, but without using the terminology that turns off non-psychoanalytic readers and is not the style of our journal.
Erikson’s Identity Formation in Historical Figures: Apply Erikson’s focus on psychosocial development to understand how historical figures navigated key developmental crises and how these shaped their leadership and life choices.
Erikson’s “Participant Observer” Methodology: Examine how researchers’ own developmental positions and identities influence their understanding of historical subjects, balancing empathic immersion with analytical distance to generate unique insights; only do this if you are a well-trained and disciplined psychoanalyst or psychohistorian so that this is not just a justification for expressing your opinions.
The Repetition Compulsion: An extremely powerful force within individuals and society, unconsciously repeating actions without a recognition of this pattern.
Following the Emotions: This is basic to personal psychoanalysis and to the psychohistorical study and groups because the emotions represent what the individuals and the group focused upon unconsciously.
Kleinian Guilt and Reparation in Post-Conflict Societies: Examine how societies process collective guilt and engage in reparative activities following historical traumas.
Freud and the Impossible Profession of Politics: Freud recognized that political leaders have to compromise and that they face great limits on their power because of the popular distrust of leadership.
Kohut on Narcissism, Narcissistic Rage, and Politics: The narcissist Kohut argued for the necessity of some level of narcissism in development and psychohistorians have sometimes described the power of narcissistic rage influencing decisions in society.
Intersubjectivity Theory and Hate: Explore how shared affective exchanges and mutual unconscious influences contribute to the formation and intensification of hate between individuals or groups. This topic investigates how failures in empathic recognition and mutual regulation give rise to defensive rigidities, dehumanization, and retaliatory violence in historical contexts.
Paranoid-Schizoid and Depressive Positions: Apply Kleinian theory to understand splitting and integration in historical political movements and cultural shifts.
Fairbairnian “Bad Objects” in Political Symbolism: Analyze how internalized “bad objects” manifest in political rhetoric, propaganda, and enemy construction.
The Return of the Repressed in Social Movements: Investigate how collectively repressed material resurfaces in cultural, social, and political expressions.
Bionian Exploration of Group Mentality: Apply Bion’s theories of basic assumption groups to understand collective regression and group dynamics in historical contexts.
Mahler’s Separation-Individuation in National Movements: Apply Mahler’s developmental theory to understand independence movements and national identity formation.
Dream Analysis and Historical Documentation: Examine recorded dreams of historical figures as windows into their unconscious processes and motivations.
Transgenerational Transmission of Trauma and Resilience: Critique patterns of how historical trauma and coping mechanisms are passed through generations.
1,000-Word Book and Movie Review Essays: These types of reviews illustrating these issues are welcome, particularly those that analyze how films represent historical figures and events through a psychoanalytic lens.
Submission Guidelines
We encourage authors to:
Ground analysis in evidence: Use primary sources (autobiographies, diaries, memoirs, government documents, contemporary references by associates) and concrete historical evidence rather than “speculative” (opinion-based) psychoanalysis. Analyze these materials chronologically to the extent possible to develop a sense of the subject’s personality and verify accuracy.
Assess secondary sources critically: Examine biographies, dictionaries, newspaper accounts, and textbooks, comparing them with primary sources to build a more complete picture.
Integrate terminology thoughtfully: Incorporate psychoanalytic concepts organically, defining terms when necessary for interdisciplinary readers.
Consider the developmental context: Focus on the historical subjects’ formative experiences and developmental trajectories.
Acknowledge limitations: Recognize the challenges of applying psychological concepts across historical and cultural distances.
Engage with existing literature: Place your work in conversation with both psychoanalytic and historical scholarship.
Develop rich case studies: Consider the narrative power of detailed case studies that preserve the complexity of human experience and subjectivity.
Utilize countertransference as a research tool: Consider your emotional responses to historical subjects as valuable data, like how analysts work with patients.
Consider adopting Erikson’s “participant observer” stance: Recognize how your own identity, life-cycle position, and current developmental challenges inform your engagement with historical subjects. This methodological approach acknowledges the disciplined subjectivity of the researcher and how the dynamic interplay between researcher and subject can yield insights that are not possible through more detached methods. As Erikson demonstrated in his studies of Luther and Gandhi, this approach requires both empathic immersion in the subject’s world and critical self-awareness.
Submission Format:
Length: 500-2,500 words; for book/movie reviews: 1,000 words
Include: Brief abstract (up to 75 words), 7-10 keywords, short author biography (100 words); for poems, include a backstory (up to 75 words)
Citations: Clio/APA style (though please include first names of authors rather than just initials)
[NB: All submitted references will be included in the online version of Clio’s Psyche.]
Submit via form below:
The editorial team welcomes discussions about potential submissions prior to the deadline, October 1, 2026. If you are interested in writing a symposium article (up to 3,500 words) of broad appeal to which authors can respond to, then you will need to submit it by April 15, 2026.
Please feel free to contact us with queries or proposals. We look forward to your contributions that help bridge psychoanalytic insight with historical scholarship.
Sincerely,
Inna
Inna Rozentsvit, PhD, MBA, MSciEd, Associate Editor of Clio’s Psyche, and Associate Director of the Psychohistory Forum, Neurologist, Neurodiversity & Neurorehabilitation Specialist, Psychoanalyst, and Psychohistorian. Email: innarozentsvit@gmail.com
Paul
Paul H. Elovitz, PhD, Historian, Research Psychoanalyst, Online Professor, Editor-in-Chief, Clio’s Psyche, Founder and Director of the Psychohistory Forum, and author The Making of Psychohistory: Origins, Controversies, and Pioneering Contributors (Routledge, 2018). E-mail: cliospsycheeditor@gmail.com