developing a sense of listening to patients, and by listening, making a difference to them, and learning the difference between being an investigator and being a therapist. In subsequently Identity's Architect reading Erikson's biography (Lawrence J. Friedman, , 1999), I came to realize how he formed his own identity out of his past and dreams. As fellow psychohistorian Dan Dervin has commented, it was Erikson's genius to push aside many aspects of his real life to Atlantic Monthly invent his own identity. His psychotherap ist daughter's article on him in the points out how lacking he was in a sense of reality. [Sue Erikson Bloland, 'Fame: The Power and Cast of a Fantasy,' November 1999]

PHE: spelling out of the method of inquiry, rather than the conclusion, is often what's really PHE: spelling out of the method of inquiry, rather than the conclusion, is often what's really important. While I've disagreed with some conclusions of my fellow psychohistorians, I've been Young Man Luther extremely impressed by the method they had been using. I remember reading and being thrilled and inspired by it but unconvinced it was correct. Many of the right questions Life Against Death: were being asked. However, I prefer Norman O. Brown's interpretation in The Psychoanalytic Meaning of History (1959).

## RC:

The excremental vision.

PHE: Brown's scatological interpretation dealt more with the real situation. But it is so PHE: Brown's scatological interpretation dealt more with the real situation. But it is so often the case that we find something enlightening even when we disagree. Returning to our psychohistory interview questions, how do you define ?

RC: me it is psychobiography. It involves a detection and delineation of emotions that RC: me it is psychobiography. It involves a detection and delineation of emotions that individuals tend to deny or minimize. I have written on: Vanzetti's depression following the death of his mother and his life as a hobo in America; Halsted's intimate friendship with and perhaps love for William Welch, and how it influenced his surgical career; Trotsky's failure to become Lenin's successor, explained by his fear of s urpassing his father; and Stalin's sadism -- we need more explanation of his envy.

## PHE:

What brought you to psychohistory?

RC: had three paths: my childhood historical interests, development of greater psychological RC: had three paths: my childhood historical interests, development of greater psychological insight into my biographical interests, and work with the Psychohistory Forum. First, when I was growing up, I had a passionate interest in a number of topics and the lives of individuals, including biographies of scientists and doctors. Two important early intellectual influences were my maternal uncle Alfred Mirsky, an eminent research scientist at the Rockefeller Institute, who talked with me about Darwin's life and work, and my maternal aunt Jeannette Mirsky, author of books on exploration and a biography of Eli Whitney, who talked to me about her research in writing biographies.

I had a tremendous interest in revolutions, specifically the French and the Russian Revolutions, as well as in ancient history, particularly that of Greece and Rome, including the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. My curiosity was whetted by the times in which I grew up, the 1930s and 1940s: the histories of Europe, the United States, and the Second World War. Some books that