Invitation to the Psychohistory Forum Work-in-Progress Meeting

“My Life in Psychohistory”
by Paul H. Elovitz

Part 2: How Psychoanalysis Freed Me from the Prison of My Childhood

May 3, 2025, 10:30am-1:00pm (EDT)

Virtual Participation via Zoom.

RSVP is required (see the RSVP form below)
Zoom link will be provided to you after you complete the form

The Psychohistory Forum is pleased to invite you to the continuation of our special work-in-progress series featuring Dr. Paul H. Elovitz as he presents the second part of his autobiographical work, My Life in Psychohistory.

About This Presentation

In this second installment, Dr. Paul Elovitz will focus on his adult life and career, examining how psychoanalysis helped him break free from what he describes as “the prison of my childhood’s anxiety, fear, guilt, reaction formation, and repressed envy and anger.” His narrative encompasses both the challenges of his early years and their positive aspects. 

While his first presentation (delivered last year) explored his search for his elusive mother and her profound influence on his development, this session will delve into his struggle to become a leader, his accomplishments as an author and scholar, and the psychoanalytic journey that revealed the extent to which he is his “mother’s son”—a realization that helped explain his gratifying intellectual career as a professor and psychohistorian. This conflicted parental identification was detailed in the first presentation of his work-in-progress autobiography.

On May 3rd, Dr. Elovitz will provide psychoanalytic, psychobiographical, and psychohistorical interpretations of his life journey, including an examination of transgenerational traumas his family suffered as Jews and how these experiences shaped his academic path and contributions to the field of psychohistory.

Connection to Part 1

For those who attended last year’s presentation on January 27, 2024 (https://psychohistoryforum.com/invitation-to-the-psychohistory-forum-work-in-progress-meeting-topic-paul-h-elovitz-my-life-in-psychohistory/), you’ll recall Dr. Elovitz’s powerful exploration of his early life and his poetic endeavor, “Searching for Mom.” He discussed how his decisions have been influenced by his mother’s impact and his identification with her, which led him to organize psychohistorical meetings from 1976 to the present. This second presentation builds upon those foundations, moving from early influences to a deeper understanding of how those childhood experiences both constrained and ultimately propelled his professional development.

For new attendees, while this session stands on its own, you may wish to familiarize yourself with Dr. Elovitz’s work, particularly The Making of Psychohistory (2018), which chronicles much of his career but focuses primarily on paternal/male influences in his life and was written before he returned to psychoanalysis to work deeply on earlier maternal influences.

Short Bio: 

Paul H. Elovitz, PhD, Historian, Research Psychoanalyst, Online Psychohistory Professor, Psychohistory Forum Director, and Editor, Clio’s Psyche; Author, The Making of Psychohistory: Origins, Controversies, and Pioneering Contributors (Routledge, 2018); Editor, The Many Roads of the Builders of Psychohistory (ORI Academic Press, 2021); Author/Editor of other books. See CliosPsyche.org for additional information.

RSVP form

We look forward to your participation in what promises to be an insightful and reflective session on the intersection of personal experience and psychohistorical inquiry.

Sincerely yours,

Inna (inna.rozentsvit@gmail.com) and Paul (cliospsycheeditor@gmail.com)

The Psychohistory Forum is a scholarly organization dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of the interaction of psychological and historical forces. For more information about the Forum and Clio’s Psyche, please explore https://psychohistoryforum.com/ and https://cliospsyche.org/