Psychohistory Forum

Clio’s Psyche 

Call for Papers: Psychobiography

Special Feature, Fall 2022
Submissions due June 15, 2022

Dear Colleague,

For this Fall 2022 Special Feature of Clio’s Psyche, we welcome your submissions, especially ones with psychoanalytic, psychological, and psychohistorical insights, on PSYCHOBIOGRAPHY, including the following subjects:

  • The autobiographies of psychobiographers (eventually to be included in an edited book)
  • Focus comparatively on the coping mechanisms of people in psychobiography
  • Psychobiographical studies that illustrate transgenerational transmission of trauma and resilience
  • Presenting a case study of an academic psychologist going beyond personal characteristics and traits to emphasize the childhood and life passage of the whole person
  • A psychobiographical study of a major academic psychologist relating theory to her/his life
  • Presenting a case study of an academic psychoanalyst focusing much less on theory after undergoing psychoanalytic training and delving into the childhood and inner life in a different manner
  • Teaching psychobiography
  • A comparative study of the approaches and methodologies of psychobiographers from a variety of fields
  • A comparative psychobiography of ordinary people in crisis such as what is happening in Ukraine
  • The role of gender: A comparative study of the psychobiographies written by women and men
  • An in-depth study of psychobiographies of the 20thcentury including early Freudian ones
  • Book reviews on psychobiographical monographs
  • Reviews of psychobiographical books and major media biographies

We seek articles from 1,500-3,500 words—including your title, author name with affiliation, a 25-word abstract, 7-10 keywords, and your brief biography (3-4 sentences) ending in your email address. Send documents in Microsoft Word (*docx or doc) format. One high-quality, extremely well written article of up to 4,500 words may be accepted to serve as symposium articles on individuals of great interest open to many different approaches, if received by May 20, 2022.

Here is some history related to this Call for Papers:

We recently created the Psychobiography Research and Publication Group (PsychobiographyForum.com) and now we want to offer the opportunity for colleagues to write articles for it.  Although most of my twelve pages of psychobiographical articles are on U.S. presidential psychobiography, we welcome submissions in all possible areas that delve into the lives of the most important, interesting, and ordinary people, living and dead.

We also have our first Psychobiographical Virtual Forum focused on psychobiography, which will be on April 2nd, when Claude-Hélène Mayer will present on Angela Merkel and Graça Machel.

We would like you and other colleagues to write psychobiographies on people preferably in your field of expertise. While two of the three leaders of our Psychobiography Group are trained as psychoanalysts, our main concern is to publish psychologically informed and well-written biographies.

The psychobiography we publish focuses on the why, that is, the motives of an individual and sometimes a group of individuals (prosopography). It is much more explanatory and interpretive than biography. Usually, it starts with the early childhood experiences of an individual but then goes beyond these origins to an in-depth understanding of the subject’s personality and life decisions, drawing on psychoanalytic, psychological, psychohistorical, and other scholarship. It is not pathography. Hanging a psychiatric diagnostic label on someone, often a disdained political leader, usually closes the door on future investigation and knowledge. Psychobiography is about deepening our knowledge and opening new doors of inquiry and writing transcultural studies about people from all over the world. The importance of psychobiography is that it offers the best method of uncovering the conscious and unconscious lives of people. Psychobiographers often come from history, journalism, literary studies, psychoanalysis, and psychology.

Clio’s Psyche and the Psychohistory Forum:

It is the style of our scholarly quarterly to publish thought-provoking, clearly written articles usually based upon psychoanalytic/psychological insight and developed with examples from history, current events, and the human experience. We are open to all psychological and psychohistorical approaches and prefer that articles be personalized, without psychoanalytic/ psychological terminology or jargon. At the moment, we are converting to a modified version of the latest APA citation system, which will have very few references and those overwhelmingly for direct quotes. We emphasize good literary style without referring to authorities except when essential. Indeed, we discourage citations except where there are quotations or they are otherwise essential. Submissions the editors deem suitable are anonymously refereed in our double-blind system. Once you have submitted your article, please do not make any further edits to the piece until we return it to you if necessary.

For those who are not familiar with our publication and its sponsor, Clio’s Psyche is in its 28th year of publication by the Psychohistory Forum, a 40-year-old organization of academics, therapists, and laypeople holding regular scholarly meetings in Manhattan, at international conventions, and virtually.  For information on our publication and back issues over a year old, go to our website at cliospsyche.org/archives.  Write me for information on how to join our group and read our print journal. Also, contact me for the link to the Google Form that makes you a member of the Psychobiography Research and Publication Group.

We hope you can join this important endeavor.  Many of our readers 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 Paul Elovitz at cliospsycheeditor@gmail.com or the other co-leaders of our Psychobiography Group:

Inna Rozentsvit at inna.rozentsvit@gmail.com or

Claude-Hélène Mayer at claudemayer@gmx.net.

Sincerely yours,

 

Paul, Claude-Hélène, Inna

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

Claude-Hélène Mayer, PhD, Professor in Industrial and Organizational Psychology at the University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa, some of her main research areas are psychobiography, women in leadership, and shame.  Email: claudemayer@gmx.net

Inna Rozentsvit, MD, PhD, Founder of Neurorecovery Solutions, Inc., Founder & Editor-in-Chief & ORI Academic Press, MindConsiliums, and MindMend Publishing, Programs Director @ the Object Relations Institute, NYC.  E-mail: inna.rozentsvit@gmail.com