NEWSLETTER OF THE INTERNATIONAL PSYCHOHISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

1a. Showing Gratitude by a Personal Example: Medallions Granted for Service to Psychohistory Forum Members

At the September 17, 2022 meeting of the Psychohistory Forum, Fordham Psychology Professor Harold Takooshian surprised the Forum’s Founder with a medallion showing the lamp of knowledge and inscribed “Paul H. Elovitz, PhD – 50 Years of Inspiring Others. Fordham Institute, 2022.”

This touching gesture inspired Professor Paul Elovitz as the editor of Clio’s Psyche to send similar medallions to Jacques Szaluta, PhD (U.S. Merchant Marine Academy), and Herbert Barry III, PhD (University of Pittsburgh), who have been loyal members of the Psychohistory Forum since its inception in the 1980s as well as contributors to and benefactors of Clio’s Psyche since it was founded in 1994.

Professor Jacques Szaluta was at our very first IPhA meeting and organized our second one a year later.  His many psychohistorical works include the book, Psychohistory (1999), in French and English, and numerous articles on Freud’s ego ideals.

Professor Herbert Barry published at least 200 articles, with a special focus on birth order, and for decades co-chaired the Psychohistory Forum’s The Psychology of Presidents and Presidential Candidates Research and Publication Group.

Each was an honored Featured Scholar in Clio’s Psyche. Their interviews may be found by going to cliospsyche.org/archives.

2. Dramatic Lives as Interplay of Personal and Family Themes:
The Psychobiographies of Van Gogh, Gellhorn, and Woodman

by Athena Androutsopoulou

The European Association of Family Therapy (EFTA) Conference that took place on 7-10 September 2022 in Ljubljana, Slovenia hosted a psychobiography symposium organized by our ‘Logo Psychis’- Training and Research Institute for Systemic Psychotherapy situated in Athens, Greece.  Psychobiography is taught to our trainee therapists as part of a qualitative research methods course, whereas a Psychobiography Club for trainees, graduates and interested colleagues has recently been launched. This was the second psychobiography symposium organized at an EFTA conference by our Institute. This time the scope was extended to the study of family life aspects. The psychobiographies of Martha Gellhorn, Vincent Van Gogh, and Francesca Woodman were presented.

The presentation began with a note that the American Psychological Association has recently emphasized the importance of psychobiography studies as clinical case studies with special guidelines published (2017). However, the systemic/family perspective has not been widely used to study famous lives, and systemic therapists have yet to take advantage of this renewed interest in psychobiography. In the three studies that were presented, various narrative/dialogical methodologies were adopted. Overall, findings pointed to useful implications for systemic therapists as they raised issues connected to life as an interplay of personal and family themes, as a conversation between inner and outer voices.

“My north star”- The early family memory of war correspondent Martha Gellhorn (by Eleni Kalaboka, Eleftheria Kanaki , Konstantina Drosatou , Sotiria Anagnostopoulou, & Niki Dioti)

Martha Gellhorn (1908-1998) was an author and famous war correspondent covering almost all major wars in the 20^th century. She was also Hemingway’s third wife (1940-1946). She described herself as “Un voyageur sur la terre.” To study her life, the researchers borrowed ideas from the “prototypical scene method” of Schultz. An early childhood memory, personal letters and a life interview were analyzed. The analysis confirmed the theme of the “lonely, happy traveler” as she put it, but also revealed the importance of her mother Edna as her “north star”. Edna was an inspiration for Martha, an early feminist who dreamed of travelling but never did. Martha appeared to be perpetually leaving Edna (“not like her”) and returning to her (“like her”) both literally and metaphorically. Loneliness was both a friend and enemy in her old age. A clinical implication was suggested, working with early childhood/family memories as a way to detect the interplay between personal and family themes.

“Only human”: Personal and family voices of sympathy and contempt in the life of Vincent van Gogh (by Peggy Poimenidou & Athena Androutsopoulou)

Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) emerged as one of the most famous painters of the 19^th century. Having sold only one painting in his lifetime, he died poor by shooting himself after a number of mental breakdowns. To study his life, we analysed letters written by and about family members referring to his last 13 years. Given that parental voices were steadily condemning (“a burden”), Vincent’s self-image and emotions ranged from a “burden” to “only human” and back to a “burden” with accompanying emotions (sadness/ guilt, anger/ self-sympathy). Secure attachment – his suggested remedy – is discussed in the clinical implications, along with the impact of strict condemning family voices that support the restricting theme of “problematic member.” The unfortunate fate of three of Vincent’s siblings (death by syphilis, suicide, death in mental institution) was never foreseen by the family.

“Visible/invisible”: The interplay of personal and family themes in the life and death of photographer Francesca Woodman (by Christos Korovilas, Ioanna-Elpida Papandreou, Athena Androutsopulou)

Francesca Woodman (1958-1981) was an American photographer who became famous after her early death by suicide age 22, and is now considered an “icon”, “a rock star of contemporary photography”. Analysis of her photos by critics reveal the theme of visible/invisible as an important aspect for understanding her work. To study her life, the researchers noticed repeated patterns in photographs/videos and self-narratives, but also triangulated findings with a family narrative as it appeared in a documentary film: “The Woodmans” were a family of artists all of whom aimed at success. Our analysis featured the theme visible/invisible as a general life theme, indicating its link to notions of acceptance/rejection, but also as a family theme with ups and downs that did not temporally coincide for all members. Clinical implications include working with family members toward secure attachment and with family themes that are less polarized and more inclusive.

Discussion with the audience

Monica White, at the time president of EFTA, served as discussant to the meeting, encouraging the audience to actively participate by sharing personal feelings and thoughts triggered by the stories. The audience appeared moved and noticed the great effort made by all three famous persons to be accepted and valued by their parents. Issues related to creativity and mental health were raised, with presenters emphasizing that their subjects only created at times of minimal internal turmoil.

Athena Androutsopoulou (PhD, EuroPsy, ECP) is a clinical psychologist and systemic and family therapist. She completed her first degree in psychology at the University of Athens, Greece, and received her doctorate in clinical psychology at the University of Bath, UK. She was trained in systemic and family therapy, and works in private practice. She is co-founder and co-director of ‘Logo Psychis’® Training and Research Institute for Systemic Psychotherapy which endorses an enriched systemic approach (SANE-System Attachment Narrative Encephalon®). She works there as trainer and supervisor. She was visiting lecturer at the University of Athens, teaching Qualitative Research Methods at postgraduate level (2009-2017). In English, she has published scientific articles in the area of systemic and narrative-based therapy and in psychobiography. She has also written book chapters, including chapters in two psychobiography handbooks. In Greek, she has written a book on dreams-as-narratives and has co-edited three systemic cases handbooks. She has published four children books, one of which was shortlisted for a Greek state award.

4. Ukraine in geopolitical context: Diverse psychohistorical perspectives. Post-conference report on the panel presented during Part 3 of the Annual IPhA’s Conference, October 9th, 2022: Brian D’Agostino, Peter W. Petschauer, Inna Rozentsvit.

4a. Ukraine and the Media: Fool Me Twice, Shame on Me.

by Brian D’Agostino, Ph.D. www.bdagostino.com
(presented at the 45th Annual Conference of the International Psychohistorical Association, 9 October 2022)

What do we really know about what is going on in Ukraine?  Overwhelmingly, we depend on what the mass media choose to report and not report. Can we assume that these sources of information are truthful and unbiased? Here is what Russia expert Stephen Cohen said about this question: “The degradation of mainstream American press coverage of Russia, a country still vital to US national security, has been under way for many years. If the recent tsunami of shamefully unprofessional and politically inflammatory articles in leading newspapers and magazines … is an indication, this media malpractice is now pervasive and the new norm. …News reports, editorials, and commentaries no longer adhere rigorously to traditional journalistic standards, often failing to provide essential facts and context; make a clear distinction between reporting and analysis; require at least two different political or ‘expert’ views on major developments; or publish opposing opinions on their op-ed pages.” (Cohen, 2022, pp. 19-20)

These words aptly describe the environment of war propaganda in which we are now immersed.  Nor can it be understood as a response to “Russian imperialism,” since these words were written in February 2014, more than a month before Russia’s annexation of Crimea. This drumbeat of distortion and demonization has been going on for more than eight years since Stephen Cohen’s assessment and has gotten worse.

In the current issue of The Journal of Psychohistory, I have an article that makes the case that the current war in Ukraine is the logical culmination of decades of US foreign policy since the end of the Cold War. If you don’t subscribe to this journal, I have a reprint on my website (just Google Brian D’Agostino, Ph.D.). The United States deploys the biggest war machine ever assembled in human history, maintains over 700 military bases throughout the world, and trains forces, supplies arms, uses force, or threatens to use force in dozens of situations throughout the world every year, not only in Ukraine. As recently as 2019, there were more than seventy such interventions on six continents, with U.S. troops or Special Operations Forces fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and nine countries in Africa (Smithsonian Magazine, 2019; Turse and Speri, 2022). If you’ve never heard of most of these interventions, it is because the American media almost never discusses them.

As for Ukraine and other high-profile interventions, Americans frequently tell themselves that their country’s mission is to protect Western Civilization from a succession of Evil Empires. To note only a few of these, in the 1960’s it was North Vietnam, whose evil was allegedly demonstrated in the Gulf of Tonkin incident. Then it was Iran. Then it was Saddam Hussein, who was supposedly acquiring weapons of mass destruction. Then it was the Taliban. Now it’s Putin in Ukraine. And tomorrow it will be China, menacing “Western Civilization” in Taiwan, 100 miles from its shores. This reminds me of the saying, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” So what do you say about people who are fooled again and again and again and keep consuming Western news media uncritically? I pose this as a genuine psychohistorical question.

Let me conclude with two quotes. The first is from A. J. Muste, who said, “The problem after a war is with the victor. He thinks he has just proved that war and violence pay. Who will now teach him a lesson?” And the second quote is from Lao Tzu, author of The Tao Te Ching: “When a country fights many wars and wins, it is destroyed. When a country fights many wars, its people get weary. When a country wins many wars, its leaders become arrogant. When arrogant leaders lead a weary people, the country is destroyed.”

References

• Cohen, Stephen F. (2022). War with Russia? From Putin and Ukraine to Trump and Russiagate. New York, NY: Hot Books.
• Smithsonian Magazine (2022). America at War (February). https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/map-shows-places-world-where-us-military-operates-180970997/
• Turse, Nick and Alice Speri (2022). How the Pentagon uses a Secretive Program to Wage Proxy Wars. The Intercept, July 1. https://theintercept.com/2022/07/01/pentagon-127e-proxy-wars/

A Note from the Editor:

Stephen F. Cohen (mentioned as the main source in this article) passed away on September 18, 2020, at the age of 81. He was Professor Emeritus of Politics at Princeton University, where for many years he was also director of the Russian Studies Program, and Professor Emeritus of Russian Studies and History at New York University. He grew up in Owensboro, Kentucky, and received his undergraduate and master’s degrees at Indiana University and his Ph.D. at Columbia University. Cohen visited and lived in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia regularly for more than forty years.

Cohen’s other books include Bukharin and the Bolshevik Revolution: A Political Biography; Rethinking the Soviet Experience: Politics and History Since 1917; Sovieticus: American Perceptions and Soviet Realities (with Katrina vanden Heuvel); Voices of Glasnost: Interviews with Gorbachev’s Reformers; Failed Crusade: America and the Tragedy of Post-Communist Russia; Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War; and The Victims Return: Survivors of the Gulag After Stalin. For his scholarly work, Cohen received several honors, including two Guggenheim fellowships and a National Book Award nomination.

Over the years, he had also been a frequent contributor to newspapers, magazines, television, and radio. His “Sovieticus” column for The Nation won a 1985 Newspaper Guild Page One Award and for another Nation article a 1989 Olive Branch Award. For many years, Cohen was a consultant and on-air commentator on Russian affairs for CBS News. With the producer Rosemary Reed, he was also project adviser and correspondent for three PBS documentary films about Russia: “Conversations With Gorbachev”; “Russia Betrayed?”; and “Widow of the Revolution.”

Brian D’Agostino is an interdisciplinary social scientist, educator, author, and speaker who holds Ph.D., Masters, and Bachelors degrees from Columbia University.  His publications and other professional qualifications span psychology, mathematics, political-economy, and public policy.  Dr. D’Agostino is President of the International Psychohistorical Association and author of The Middle Class Fights Back: How Progressive Movements Can Restore Democracy in America (Praeger 2012).   He has addressed the NYC Panel for Educational Policy and NYS Senate Education Committee and lectured for the general public and academic audiences.  His publications have appeared in the peer-reviewed Political Science Quarterly, Political Psychology, The Journal of Psychohistory, and Review of Political Economy, as well as popular publications including New York Daily News, Z Magazine, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and Living City.

5. On Listen to Rarely Heard Voices, a Psychohistorical Poetry Book by Peter Petschauer.

by MindMend Publishing

Psychohistory is not usually associated in one’s mind with poetry, but as Howard Stein, our esteemed colleague psychohistorian (and also a poet laureate of the High Plains Society for Applied Anthropology), stated in his 2018 IPhA workshop on “Psychohistorian’s Self, Culture and History” – that psychohistorians can enrich the field of psychohistory by their use of self and by deepening their insights into lived emotional experiences. To use medical and psychoanalytic analogies, poetry is the same as being with the patient, rather than simply taking that patient’s history. Taking history is also important, but it does not substitute for the experience of “being with” (for the professional) and “being seen” (for the patient). Recent book of psychohistorical poetry, Listen to Rarely Heard Voices, by Peter Petschauer offers us both, being with and being seen, experiences – at once. Below, we are sharing with you an excerpt of the Foreword to Peter Petschauer’s Listen to Rarely Heard Voices. [The book is available on Amazon, and more information – about the author and the endorsements – is available at https://oriacademicpress.org/listen-to-rarely-heard-voices/]

After publishing Hopes and Fears: Past and Present in 2019, we are once again drawn to the engaging poetry of Peter Petschauer, a “consummate weaver of words” (as Dr. Noyes Capehart called the author in his endorsement of the first volume of poetry). Dr. Petschauer, an esteemed international scholar, writes with the wisdom and experience of his life and never misses a beat. His background includes growing up in the mountains of Italy removed from the atrocities of the Nazis and the knowledge of his father’s association with the SS. His humble beginnings kept him in hiding and with four different women engaging in the role of his mother. Peter’s poems  are the ultimate celebration of a life well lived in generosity of spirit and compassion, evidenced by a kindly and helpful disposition towards all around him.

Long a citizen of the U.S. and professor of history, his sharply focused eyes bring new awareness to all he sees as he enlightens our many paths. Interspersed with the poems are wonderful photographs, most taken by the author, illuminating his poems and their environment.

His new book is divided into three sections: Nature, Life, and Troubles. His oneness and joy of nature is constantly apparent. In one of the book’s earliest poems, “FALL WALK,” he writes:

“Birds complain about my presence,
acorns crash to the ground,
leaves jump to the side,
rustle as they reach the border of the path…”

Or in “THE CARPETED PATH”:

“Along the path nature does the talking,
we embrace its call.”

In the “LIFE” section, Peter Petschauer brilliantly combines the pain and positives of aging, as in his poem “EVOLUTION’S EVOLUTION”: “(t)he pain of aging brings serenity and wisdom,” and in his reminiscing poem “OTHER TIMES”:

“Tentacles of other times
reaching into the present.
The illusion of being young forever”

And from “LIFE SOUNDS,” the quietly joyful:

“The soft breathing of my beloved partner
in a shared bed.
Reassurances of life”

Every poem brings its subjects to life at their reading, easily painting pictures for our minds to participate in Peter’s world. In the section “TROUBLES,” the author brilliantly renders the politically troubled times we now inhabit and the miscalculations dominating our lives. In “ALL POWERFUL EMPIRES,” he writes:

“Are we learning from this accumulation of lessons?
History offers this resounding answer:
You have the singular capacity
to ignore the lessons of the past.”

In Peter’s poem “CREATING IMAGES,” one feels an update to the children’s folk tale “THE EMPEROR’S NEW CLOTHES” illustrated repeatedly. And in his “THE RETURN OF THE AUTHORITARIANS,” “Once more pretty slogans cover the evil underneath/ Reactivating glorious pasts that rarely were,” Petschauer’s poems, particularly in this section, urge applause.

We are thankful to Peter Petschauer for his dedication to humanity and nature, to history and psychohistory, for his empathic stance in many difficult situations, and for his courage and vulnerability, which are so rare in today’s world!

6. Call for Proposals for IPhA’s 2023 Annual Conference

by IPhA’s Leadership

INTERNATIONAL PSYCHOHISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
46th ANNUAL CONFERENCE, MAY 18-20, 2023
IN NEW YORK CITY (public health conditions permitting) and ON ZOOM

WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON?
PSYCHOHISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES ON A WORLD ON THE EDGE

SUBTHEMES:
PSYCHOHISTORICAL INSIGHTS ON:

• CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF DENIAL
• WARS, GEOPOLITICAL CONFLICT, AND OTHER INTERNATIONAL CRISES
• RESURGENT TRIBALISM: BACKLASH TO NEOLIBERAL GLOBALIZATION
• GENDER, RACE, AND IDEOLOGIES OF DOMINATION
• PSYCHOANALYSIS AND HEALING

7. Psychohistory Forum and Clio’s Psyche: Past and Forthcoming Activities

by Paul Elovitz

Clio’s Psyche (https://cliospsyche.org/) is in its 28^th year of publication by the Psychohistory Forum (https://psychohistoryforum.com/), a 40-year-old organization of academics, therapists, and laypeople holding regular scholarly meetings in Manhattan, at international conventions, and virtually.

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. Submissions the editors deem suitable are peer-reviewed in our double-blind system.

The next Psychohistory Forum Work-in-Progress virtual meeting will be on Saturday, January 7, 2023 (10:30am-1pm), with a focus on the Psychoanalysis and Psychology of Fear and Anxiety. The presenters are Inna Rozentsvit, Paul Elovitz, and a third to be named colleague.

Our following meeting will be the inauguration of the Psychohistory Forum Psychobiography Reading Group on February 25^th, 2023, when we will discuss James Anderson’s chapter “D. W. Winnicott’s constant search for the life that feels real” in 2015 book The Winnicott Tradition: Lines of Development —Evolution of Theory and Practice over the Decades (edited by  M. B. Spelman & F. Thomson-Salo). Inna Rozentsvit will provide PDF copies of the volume for those who are interested.

For hybrid fall meetings, we wish to thank Tom Ferraro for his September 17^th presentation, “Psychoanalytic Work with Athletes: Probing the Unconscious in Sports.” and Jim Anderson for his November 12^th talk, “Heinz Kohut’s Vulnerable Self: His Reaction to the Holocaust and Break with the Psychoanalytic Establishment.”  We also want to thank Howard Stein, Ona Lindquist, and Peter Petschauer for their October 22^nd virtual presentations on Music and Musicians. We welcome additional work-in-progress proposals, which include papers from 15 to 50 pages.

The Psychobiographical Research and Publication Group is a sponsor of the February 25^th, 2023 meeting, as it was of the November 12^th, 2022 presentation on Kohut. It encourages submissions on psychobiography for Clio and ultimately – for an edited book tentatively titled The Autobiographies and Psychobiographies of Psychobiographers.

The Lawrence J. Friedman Festschrift has so many valuable articles and tributes that it will be published in the Spring rather than the winter issue of Clio’s Psyche. Our thanks to Mark West for organizing this time-consuming recognition of an outstanding psychobiographer and valued colleague. The William McKinley (Mac) Runyan Festschrift, being organized by Jim Anderson, will be published in the Fall 2023 issue. We welcome nominees for Festschrifts with the nominator taking responsibility for the outreach to colleagues who best know the individual. We welcome Festschrift articles of up to 3,000 words elaborating, extending, or critiquing his work.

Our next substantial Call for Papers for Clio’s Psyche is on the Psychoanalysis and Psychology of Fear, with a January 15^th, 2023 submissions deadline (https://psychohistoryforum.com/call-for-papers-the-psychoanalysis-and-psychology-of-fear/). Hopefully, there will be submissions on the incredible anxiety generated around the midterm U.S. elections. Colleagues are encouraged to write up to 1,200 words (including title, affiliation, 7-10 keywords, and a brief author biography) as a commentary on Inna Rozentsvit’s “The Fear Contagion: A Psycho-bio-medico-historical Perspective” and/or Paul Elovitz’ “Anxiety and Fear in Society and My Life” papers. We encourage you to write your own paper, which may be 1,500-2,500 words (including title, affiliation, 7-10 keywords, and a brief author biography, plus an up to 25-word abstract). Detailed psychobiographical studies are welcome for all issues of the journal and may be up to 5,000 words on a particular individual.

The lengthy Winter 2023 issue of Clio’s Psyche is being printed and should be mailed to Forum members and subscribers before the end of the November. It includes:

• The Psychoanalysis/Psychology and Poetry of Music and Musicians: Part I
• The Psychoanalysis and Psychology of the Intergeneration and Transgenerational Transmission of Trauma and Resilience: Part II
• How Abusive Child Rearing Endangers Our World by Encouraging Authoritarianism
• Psychobiography
• An Interview of a Harvard Author on the Armenian Genocide
• Book Reviews

As usual, we also accept articles unrelated to specific issues, features, Festschrifts, and symposia. Back issues of Clio’s Psyche can be accessed at CliosPsyche.org/archives.

Go to www.cliospsyche.org and contact Paul H. Elovitz at  for details of these activities.

8. WHITEBOARDINGS: Poetic Psychohistory or Psychohistorical Poetry?

from Howard F. Stein & Seth Allcorn

Whiteboardings is a unique collection of co-authored poetry. We co-create poems on an imaginary whiteboard between us as we visit weekly on Skype. We have coined the term whiteboarding as a verb that distills our method, how we work. Its prime values are tolerance of ambiguity and uncertainty, emergence rather than directional planning.

We imagine the surface of a whiteboard in the transitional, open space between us (a notion derived from Donald Winnicott) and write on it our shared “free associations.”  Spatially, this process can be visualized to be located between us rather than entirely within each of us. It feels as if the emerging poem has a life of its own, what Thomas Ogden calls a “third,” ours, neither yours nor mine.

From the outside, our way of working appears formless and directionless, disorganized and messy! A poem eventually emerges from not needing to know at the outset where we are going – or even that we are going somewhere. Only along the journey through the unknown do we find the path. Yet the resulting poem feels like an amalgam, unitary, seamless, whole, perhaps even inevitable. The poems we have assembled here are the result of this unique experiment in writing poetry.

“In this remarkable anthology co-authors Howard Stein and Seth Alcorn use the image of the whiteboard to explain and illustrate their unusual creative collaboration. We typically use whiteboards in group settings to brainstorm and note ideas. This is essentially what the authors do in their joint writing, only their whiteboard is the safe “third space” of their collective unconscious and their process involves working with protopoems until they emerge as an expression of the connection between two beings, an intertwining so profound it cannot be disentangled. The poems that emerge from this process are by turns hopeful, bitter, contemplative, and droll.

The authors cast their net wide, embracing topics from tubing to medical calamities, the joyless workplace and George Floyd’s murder. They ask timeless and unanswerable questions: What is the meaning of life? Have the better angels of our nature deserted us? What vanishes and what endures? Can we escape from the zero-sum games that sometimes seem to constitute our lives? When is it time to let go and of what? Many of the poems have images of a world gone awry, such as a river flowing upstream. Others are imbued with an elegiac tone, a sense of looking back on life, sometimes in wonder, sometimes with regret, wondering whether life amounts to anything more than “hulls by the side of the road.” Yet the authors also consistently search for hope, the gentle humanizing touch in an otherwise cold hospital, the upward spiral rather than the Ouroboros snake perpetually eating its own tail, the possibility of meaningful legacy, remnants of felled oak trees whittled into enduring objects. “Nature will have its way” the authors realize and they both mourn and accept this truth. The power of this collection lies in the fascinating way in which two brilliant minds work in tandem to examine this truth together.” – Johanna Shapiro, Ph.D., Professor Emerita, Department of Family Medicine; Director, Program in Medical Humanities & Arts, University of California Irvine School of Medicine

Reserve your copy today: https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/whiteboardings-creating-collaborative-poetry-in-a-third-space-by-howard-f-stein-and-seth-allcorn/

Howard F. Stein, an applied, psychoanalytic, medical, and organizational anthropologist, as well as organizational consultant, psychohistorian, and poet, is professor emeritus in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK, US, where he taught nearly 35 years. Howard and Seth, long-time friends, have co-authored numerous scholarly articles, chapters, and books, some of which include Howard’s poems. This book is their first collaboration on poems. Howard is Poet Laureate of the High Plains Society for Applied Anthropology and has published five previous chapbooks with Finishing Line Press.

Seth Allcorn is a retired, former health sciences center executive at the University of Missouri – Columbia, University of Rochester, Loyola University Chicago, Texas Tech Health Sciences Center, and former Vice President University of New England.  He is an Associate of the Center for Psychosocial Organization Studies and the author or co-author of fifteen books, and over one hundred articles in scholarly and practitioner journals.

9. The Journal of Psychohistory: Interview with David Lotto, the Editor

By Ken Fuchsman

The following is an interview with David Lotto, editor of the Journal of Psychohistory. This is the longest lasting journal in the field, starting in the 1970s. Dr. Lotto is a practicing psychoanalyst and was part of Robert Lifton’s legendary psychohistory group held at the latter’s summer home in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. The interview was conducted by Ken Fuchsman. The initials of the interviewer and respondent precede the questions and answers.       

KF: What is the range of subjects the Journal of Psychohistory covers? 

DL: The range of subjects we cover is quite broad. I had a look at what we’ve published since I became the editor of the journal in 2014. Probably the greatest number of articles would fall under the category of psychobiography. A partial list of the individuals would include material on contemporary and recent historical political figures such Putin, Osama, Trump, Clinton, Biden, JFK jr., Hitler, and Stalin; older historical figures such as de Tocqueville, Montesquieu, Queen Victoria, Henry Morgenthau, and Beethoven; along with Freddy Mercury and Paul Simon. Another category would be current events, first and foremost things Trumpian, but the Iraq war, climate change, terrorism, the Tea Party, mass incarceration, Supreme Court decisions, and the war in Ukraine. And then there’s an array of topics, a sampling includes militarism, authoritarianism, capitalism, racism, white supremacy, empathy, trauma, childhood and child abuse, antisemitism, misogyny, psychoanalytic attitudes toward homosexuality, and propaganda. And finally, writing on historical events – the inquisition, slavery, reconstruction, the Armenian genocide, the holocaust, and apartheid.

What all the articles have in common, whatever the subject matter, is that they all explore the psychological motives and processes that help to explain the subject matter at hand.

Our website, psychohistory.com has an index, by subject, of all the authors and titles of articles published from 1973 through 1998.

KF:  As editor, how do you describe psychohistory?

DL: I prefer the adjective rather than noun, psychohistorical rather than psychohistory. I consider any work that examines psychological motivations of the groups or individuals an author is attempting to explain as psychohistorical. I consider the range of subject matter that can be investigated to be extensive. It would include any biography, study of past or current events, intellectual history, history of ideas, cultural anthropological, sociological, and even philosophical inquiries, as long as it focuses on psychological motivation. I would also consider any examination of group phenomena including the investigation of ideologies, political and social movements, as psychohistorical. In addition, explorations into the world of artistic, literary, and musical creations, again to the extent they seek to understand things in terms of human motivations, would be included. I would consider just about all of what is usually referred to as “applied psychoanalysis” to be psychohistorical.

Although most of the psychohistorical studies that have been done have come from a psychoanalytic or at least psychodynamic perspective, I would also consider work using non-psychoanalytic psychological approaches, such as terror management theory, attachment theory, and family systems theories (to name just a few that have been used already in psychohistorical studies) to be psychohistorical as well.

There are many possible answers to questions of which and what sorts of motivations are most useful in understanding any particular subject we are examining. So we don’t, for example, have to say that factors related to child rearing must be central to an account in order to label it as psychohistorical. Nor do we have to maintain that non-psychological factors, the many external forces that impinge on us from the outside, humanly created social, cultural, political, or economic realities, or from forces or events that arise from nature, are not important in understanding why things are the way they are, perhaps in addition to or alongside of the psychological factors.

KF: When did the Journal start and what has been its history?

DL: The journal was started by Lloyd deMause in 1973 and was titled The History of Childhood Quarterly. The name was changed to the Journal of Psychohistory in 1976.

KF: What makes psychohistory important?

DL: The psychological factors involved in driving human activity or creation are crucial to understanding a great deal about the world of human behavior. It gives us a very powerful tool, a method for arriving at the fullest understanding of the subject of our inquires.   Although, given my definition of psychohistorical above, there is a huge range of subjects that can be investigated psychohistorically, for me what is most important is the psychohistorical study of people and events that have a major influence over our fates. Even when the focus is on current events it is often crucial to know about the historical roots of what is determining the phenomenon we are trying to understand.

KF: What is your professional background and experience in psychohistory?

DL: I started attending the yearly IPA conferences in New York in the early 1980’s while I was training as a psychoanalyst. I had an interest and read widely in the psychoanalytic literature starting when I was an undergraduate. In 2007 I was invited by Robert Lifton to attend the Wellfleet Psychohistory Group meetings for a weekend in September. I attended the yearly meetings until they ended in 2016. Starting in the mid-1980’s I presented papers regularly at the IPA conference and published several articles and book reviews in Clio’s Psyche and The Journal of Psychohistory.

KF: How did you become editor, and what is your philosophy of editing the Journal?

DL: In 2014 Lloyd deMause asked me to co-edit the journal, although I had been helping out with the journal for several years before that.   I became the editor in 2016. Keeping with my expansive view of the subject matter I consider to be psychohistorical, I am open to receiving manuscripts on a wide range of topics, as long as they pay some attention to psychological factors. I see the Journal as a scholarly enterprise and insist on adequate footnoting and referencing. All articles must not have been published previously and undergo peer review prior to editing and publishing. We have an editorial board of about 30 individuals who are the core of our peer reviewers. Articles are sent out to between three and five reviewers. We have an upper limit of 9000 words as I find that longer articles tend to be read less often.

KF: What kinds of feedback do you get from subscribers as to their view of the Journal?

DL: We have no systematic process for requesting feedback. We will publish responses to published pieces as letters to the editor. So far, most feedback has been complimentary. No one has written that they are cancelling their subscription in reaction to anything we have published.

KF: In your time as editor, please describe some of the highlights of the Journal.

DL: There has been a steady stream of mostly quite interesting original articles on many subjects. They are most often a pleasure to read. I also, again mostly, enjoy the editing I do, which always has the goal of improving the quality and style of the paper while, most often, not altering the content. It has also been a pleasure to work with Susan Hein, the publisher of the journal. We are the only two people doing the work that is necessary to produce a quarterly journal and have been able to publish close to three thousand pages of quality material over the last eight years.

KF: If someone is interested in submitting an article, what would be the procedure and process, how long does it take to evaluate a submission, and what kind of feedback is given?

DL: When I receive a submission I read to see if it is appropriate for the journal. If it is, which is most of the time with the submissions we have been receiving, I choose the three to five readers from the editorial board I think are best qualified to review the paper. I usually ask the readers to send me their evaluations within six weeks. If the majority of the readers think the article is appropriate for the journal.  I then edit the paper. Often I request some revisions. I try not to ask the authors to make a lot of changes in addition to whatever I have done with my editing. I am usually able to complete the editing shortly after I receive all the peer evaluations so that the author will receive the initial feedback between six and eight weeks after I receive the manuscript. The time between a final acceptance and it appearing in print is variable, depending on how many articles are in the queue. For the most part that time interval has been between one and six months.

To subscribe please contact Susan Hein at 

10. The International Journal of Controversial Discussions: “Jew Hating: The Black Milk of Civilization.”

from Arnold Richards

The International Journal of Controversial Discussions: Psychoanalysis in the Twenty-First Century (https://ijcd.internationalpsychoanalysis.net/) is a project of Dr. Arnold Richards. The premise of this publication is that an article is published, and that many comment on the article follow. Some support and some disagree with the premises and arguments of the piece.  The current edition of this journal is now available. The subject is “Jew Hating: The Black Milk of Civilization.” The co-editors of this issue are two esteemed New York area psychoanalysts, Merle Molofsky and Harvey Kaplan.

The contents of this issue can be accessed at https://ijcd.internationalpsychoanalysis.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/ijcd-Jew-hating-Vol-2-issue-2-journal.pdf.

The lead essay is Arnold Richard’s “The Need Not to Believe: Freud’s Godlessness Reconsidered.” Dr. Richard’s says the three distinct strands of Freud’s Jewishness are his assimilationist commitments, his response as a Jew to anti-Semitism, and Freud’s “utter, militant Godlessness.” It is this third element that Richards evaluates in this paper.

Then there are thirteen responses to Dr. Richards. Among the respondents are David Lotto, Daniel Benveniste, Selma Duckler, David Terman, Merle Molofsky. Six of the responses have the words anti-Semitism in their titles.

But this is not the entire contents of this issue. There is a poem by Paul Celan in the original and translated.  Another poem by Merle Molosfsky. There is an Addenda that has an essay by Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, another by the distinguished psychoanalyst Jacob Arlow. The theme of anti-Semitism pervades the Addenda. The journal is free and can be accessed at the link at the end of the first paragraph.