Psychohistory Forum

Clio’s Psyche

Call for Papers:
Psychological Explorations of Election 2024:
Psychobiography, Emotions, Age, Political Illusions, and Electoral Realities

(Articles are to be 500-2,500 words including a brief abstract, keywords, & bio.)
Papers to be submitted by January 1, 2024 for the Winter issue
(We will accept submissions and publish on the subject throughout 2024.)

Dear Colleagues,

At the moment (May 2023), the 2024 presidential nominating contests look like a repeat of 2020 with significant elements making both the Democratic and Republican parties unenthusiastic about their likely candidate.  Biden’s age and low public opinion ratings and Trump’s age, denial he lost in 2020, support for the January 6, 2022 insurrection, and legal troubles are major issues behind these feelings.  While DeSantis, Haley, Scott, and others jockey for support, it is unclear if any can get nominated in the face of Trump’s animosity and the loyalty of his supporters.  We would like to invite you and other colleagues to probe the political psychology, psychohistory, and psychobiography of the subject for the Winter 2024 issue of Clio’s Psyche: Understanding the “Why” of Culture, Current Events, History, and Society.

We welcome different types of submissions, especially case studies, with psychoanalytic/ psychohistorical/psychological insights on a variety of aspects of the election such as:

  • Psychobiographical explorations of Biden, DeSantis, Haley, Scott, et al., and Trump
  • Intense feelings of hatred toward Biden, Trump, et al.
  • Detailed psychobiographical and psychopolitical comparisons of Biden and Trump
  • Comparing Biden and Trump’s accomplishments, goals, and leadership
  • Case studies of how voters are torn between idealization and denigration
  • Ideological purity versus the desire to win: Identification with the winner
  • The process of identification with a candidate and switching to a surviving candidate
  • The relationship between the leader and the led in the 2024 election
  • At what point do disappointments, dreams, and illusions give way to political realities
  • Spouses and children of the candidates
  • Perils of verbal (and non-verbal) slips along the campaign trail and in debates
  • Cycles in American politics and their influence on the 2024 election
  • Comparing the foreign policy of Biden and Trump
  • American electoral fantasies and the world’s realities
  • The mood of the voters: from the very energized to the stay-at-home non-voters
  • The psychology of independent voters and the possibility of a strong third party candidate

We are seeking articles from 500-2,500 words—including an abstract (up to 50 words), seven to ten keywords (hyphenation is okay), and your brief biography ending in your email address—by January 1, 2024, for the Winter issue that we hope to mail at the end of November. (This is an ongoing Call for Papers, so if you submit something after October 1st, it may appear in a later issue in 2024.)  Some longer (up to 3,500 words, which will be held to a higher standard) are welcome. A special (up to 3,500 words) article received by July 15th will be refereed early and may become the basis of a symposium. An expression of interest now, and then an abstract or outline by June 30th would be helpful. Papers should be e-mailed as attached Microsoft Word (docx or doc) documents or rich text (rtf) files.  Submissions the editors deem suitable are anonymously refereed.  Once you’ve sent in your submission, please refrain from making any further changes.

We are open to all psychological approaches and prefer those articles be personalized (consider your own transference and countertransference feelings in writing), without psychoanalytic/psychological terminology or jargon, and with our modified APA style but without foot/endnotes.  Indeed, we discourage citations except where there are quotations, or they are otherwise essential.  Our website (cliospsyche.org) provides guidelines (cliospsyche.org/guidelines) for authors.

One of our veteran editors and referees has made the excellent point that authors need to be self-editing their submissions, bearing in mind that Clio is a journal based on psychology that is moderate in tone and words. It is inappropriate to call Republicans or Democrats “bad,” “Nazis,” or “communists.”  It is equally inappropriate to present Democrats or Republicans as all good.  However, should an author with strong countertransference feelings approach their subject with clear cut therapeutic insight as an Eriksonian participant observer, then their submission will receive careful consideration. You can get a better sense of our approaches by visiting our website at www.cliospsyche.org where you can find issues from 1994 to within two years of the present.

For those who are not familiar with our publication and its sponsor, Clio’s Psyche is entering its 28th year of publication by the Psychohistory Forum, a 42-year-old organization of academics, therapists, and laypeople holding regular scholarly meetings in Manhattan and at international conventions. We seek to publish thought-provoking, clearly written articles usually based upon psychoanalytic/psychological insight, developed with examples from history, current events, and the human experience.

We hope you can join this important endeavor. Many of our members and subscribers tell us that they find our publication to be a lively, compelling read that provides in-depth analyses.  Please forward this Call for Papers to any colleagues (including associations or electronic mailing lists) who may be interested.

If you have any questions, please e-mail me at cliospsycheeditor@gmail.com.

Sincerely yours,

Paul

Paul H. Elovitz, PhD, Historian, Research Psychoanalyst, Online Professor, Editor, Clio’s Psyche and author The Making of Psychohistory: Origins, Controversies, and Pioneering Contributors (Routledge, 2018). E-mail: cliospsycheeditor@gmail.com