Psychobiography.com

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Any list of influential figures must begin at the beginning: with Freud and Erikson. It is not too much to say that Freud virtually invented modern psychobiography with his book on Leonardo (see Schultz Publications link). Other titles by Freud of a psychobiographical nature include his always engaging case histories, and his work on Moses, Moses and Monotheism. A nice analysis of Freud's Leonardo book is contained in Alan Elms' pathbreaking book (see link below), Uncovering Lives, a must read for all serious psychobiographers. Stannard's book, Shrinking History, takes Freud's argument in Leonardo apart, exposing many of its most serious flaws. But flawed though it no doubt is, it still warrants careful consideration. As Alan Elms has put it, Leonardo tells us both what to do, and what not to do.

Erikson's two primary works are Gandhi's Truth and Young Man Luther. Both show psychobiography at its best, and also include sections on various methodological difficulties.

Current psychobiographers of special note include Irving Alexander, James Anderson, Alan Elms, Henry Murray, Dan Ogilvie, Mac Runyan, and William Todd Schultz.

Alexander's work focuses mainly on psychologists. He has written on Freud, Jung, and Harry Stack Sullivan--an especially interesting case. Two of his more recent essays concern his lifelong friend Silvan Tomkins (the inventor of the highly influential script theory). These are more biographical than psychobiographical, though some attention is paid to the subjective origins of Tomkins' theoretical work. One such piece can be found in the book Shame and Its Sisters, Duke University Press. To me, Alexander's most valuable contribution to psychobiography is methodological. In his book Personology, also published by Duke University Press, he proposes an immensely helpful set of cues or pointers for homing in on psychologically revealing textual material. He calls these indicators of psychological saliency. They include frequency, emphasis, omission, negation, and incompletion, among others. Those feeling daunted by the vexing heterogeneity and proliferating nature of biographical data will doubtlessly find these pointers particularly useful. In short, they help to make sense of a life. I use them in every person-centered class I teach.
Anderson specializes in the James family, specifically Henry and William James, but he has also written outstanding essays on psychologists Henry Murray and Robert White. The Murray essay can be found here, alongside work by other distinguished psychobiographers. Like most researchers occupied with the study of lives, Anderson also takes up the question of method, or how to go about crafting creative and persuasive interpretations of life history material. His newest work will appear this year--2002--in the forthcoming book Up Close and Personal: Teaching and Learning Narrative Methods (APA Press). It, too, focuses on Henry and William James.
Elms was my teacher at UC Davis, and so naturally, to me, his work best represents the field's promise. First of all, you may want to check out his website, which features links to some of his papers. The address is www.ulmus.net. The list of subjects Elms has written on includes Presley (one of his major fascinations!), L. Frank Baum, Nabokov, and Asimov; psychologists Freud, Jung, Gordon Allport and B.F. Skinner; and political figures Carter, Haig, and George Bush Sr. All these essays can be found in Uncovering Lives, one of the field's essential texts. Quite simply, an excellent way to learn how to do psychobiography well is to read Alan Elms. His writing is superb and nimble (also occasionally quite funny), his use of theory always adroit and immensely well-informed, and his arguments unfailingly convincing. He is truly the psychobiographer's psychobiographer.
Henry Murray was passionately devoted to the study of individual lives--personology, that is--and to the development of sophisticated methods--like the Thematic Apperception Test--for exploring murkier regions of the self. His obsession was Herman Melville (who for complex reasons he wound up publishing very little about), but he also wrote on Hitler, Satan, and legions of Harvard undergraduates who served as his subjects (one of whom went on to become the "Unabomber"). His essay on what he calls the "Icarus Complex" is maybe his most famous, but anything by Murray will captivate life writers. In fact, his writing is almost too good. For those interested in Murray's life--immensely colorful, and in some ways immensely odd--"Love's Story Told" is almost impossible to put down. For those who want to learn more about his theory, this book is indispensable.
Dan Ogilvie is best known for his work on the undesired self, but lately he has turned his attention to matters psychobiographical. A book centered on J.M. Barrie, and on fantasies of flying and their psychodynamic roots, will appear some time in the next few years, under the imprint of Oxford University Press. Keep on the lookout for it.
Runyan, like Elms, has virtually defined the field. In some respects, psychobiography simply is Alan Elms and William "Mac" Runyan. Runyan's book Life Histories and Psychobiography is a classic. Especially useful are its various sections on methodology. The book includes perhaps the single-most referenced piece in the entire discipline, "Why Did van Gogh Cut Off His Ear?" What makes this essay so unique? It does an excellent job of discussing how assorted interpretations of the same event may be scrutinized for their efficacy. In the end, Runyan proposes criteria for evaluating psychobiographical explanations. Presently Runyan's focus is the history of psychology. He plans a book on figures such as Henry Murray and William James, among others. Runyan teaches in the Social Welfare department at UC Berkeley.
Schultz's writing focuses on writers, including James Agee, Jack Kerouac, Sylvia Plath, Roald Dahl, Truman Capote, Oscar Wilde, Kafka, Kathryn Harrison, and others. His most recent essay explores Wilde's prison epiphany. It can be found in Turns in the Road: Narrative Studies of Lives in Transition, APA Press. Other articles have appeared in American Imago, Psychoanalytic Review, and Biography. An essay on what Schultz calls the "prototypical scene" will be included in the forthcoming book Up Close and Personal: Teaching and Learning Narrative Methods, APA Press, 2002. In it Schultz proposes that certain life events rise to prototypical status: that is, they contain, in condensed form, the core parameters of an entire life story. These scenes may be identified according to certain criteria Schultz spells out in the paper (see Schultz Publications link).
Other researchers who do at least intermittent psychobiography include the following:
Ed de St. Aubin, who has written on Frank Lloyd Wright and generativity. That essay can be found here.
Dan McAdams, who has written on Mishima, and who is best known as the inventor of the highly influential life story model of identity, described in detail here.
Rae Carlson, who has written on Nathaniel Hawthorne, and who, maybe more than anybody else, worked hard to make Tomkins' script theory accessible to a whole generation of personality psychologists (myself included). For a depiction of Rae's personality and her struggle to win a role for Personology in APA's "personality and social psychology" division, see this paper by Alan Elms.
Jefferson Singer, who does a number of mini-psychobiographies in this work on memory and the self.