Individual presentation:
• Paul Elovitz:
Psychobiographical Reflections on Robert Jay Lifton and Lloyd deMause and Their Impact on Psychohistory
(60 min)

Abstract:

Lloyd deMause and Robert Jay Lifton are two men who had a powerful impact on psychohistory: Lifton for the half century long Wellfleet Meeting and his fine books based upon a psychohistorical approach and deMause for the creation of the ongoing International Psychohistorical Association (IPhA) and the Journal of Psychohistory as well as his scholarship. The first was adamant in his opposition to creating an organized field of psychohistory at a time when there was widespread institutional support for it. The second who emphatically sought to create a field based on his scientific ideas and principles, but who was labeled as too extreme by many psychohistorians and intellectuals in general. There is a serious lack of childhood and early biographical information for each of these talented men. Robert Lifton provides in his memoir a great deal of information on his feelings and life, but extremely little on himself prior to going to college. Lloyd deMause never wrote a memoir and preferred to talk about his psychohistorical concepts, institution building, and activities rather than himself. Fortunately, there are some of his letters that reveal some feelings. It is the author’s contention that deMause is unfairly blamed for the failure of the field gaining greater academic and intellectual acceptance, when the essential responsibility lays with Lifton’s initial decision to treat Wellfleet as his personal invitation only research group rather than as a training ground program for psychohistory as desired by the foundation that initially funded it.

Keywords: field formation, institutionalization, Journal of Psychohistory, Lloyd deMause, psychobiography, psychohistory, Robert Jay Lifton, Wellfleet Meeting

Short Bio:

Paul H. Elovitz, PhD, is a historian of psychohistory who has published numerous articles on the subject and the book The Making of Psychohistory: Origins, Controversies, and Pioneering Contributors (Routledge, 2018). He is also a research psychoanalyst who sometimes teaches online following a long career of teaching at Fairleigh Dickinson, Rutgers and Temple Universities, as well as at Ramapo College. In 1982 he created the Psychohistory Forum which he directs, and in 1994 he established Clio’s Psyche for which he is editor in chief. After being present for the planning of the IPhA, he has attended and presented his scholarship at every meeting.  He can be reached at .