Psychohistory

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[[File:Lloyd deMause.jpg|thumb|right|165px|Lloyd deMause]]
{{Psychology}}
:''No relation to the fictional field of psychohistory in [[Isaac Asimov]]'s ''Foundation'' series, though the two share some similarities.
'''Psychohistory''' is an extremely fringe academic field that (unsuccessfully) attempts to combine [[psychology]] and [[history]], but is, in reality, a bizarre fusion of history, [[pseudohistory]] and [[Sigmund Freud|Freudian]] [[psychoanalysis]] and is basically one big hot mess of pseudo-scholarship. While various historical works have drawn on psychological theory, the term "psychohistory" is generally used exclusively to refer to the movement explicitly calling itself "psychohistory." The psychohistory movement proper began in the 1970s and is promoted most notably by Lloyd deMause, a [[Politics|political scientist]] and psychoanalyst. It has failed to gain traction within [[academia]] as no departments of psychohistory exist nor are degrees given in the subject at any university, though the rare course in the subject can be found.<ref>[http://www.bu.edu/bridge/archive/2003/10-31/psycho.html Psychohistory course probes the psyches that changed the world] by Brian Fitzgerald</ref> The historian Jacques Barzun called it "pseudo-historical."<ref>Barzun, p. 3</ref>

==Science or history?==
The first problem psychohistory encounters is its inability to decide whether it's [[science]] or history. DeMause refers to it as "the science of historical motivations"; however, others have defined it as an approach to history drawing on the "scientific" theory of psychoanalysis<ref>[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1973/may/03/an-exchange-on-psychohistory/?page=1 An Exchange on Psychohistory], New York Review of Books</ref> (which should be kind of a red flag right there).

Secondly, it draws on [[Freudian]] [[psychoanalysis]] as its theoretical basis, much of which is considered [[pseudoscientific]] by modern psychology and [[cognitive science]].

==Historical determinism==
The harder forms of psychohistory generally boil down to [[historical determinism]] in which early childhood experiences, and especially [[child abuse]], are responsible for just about every historical event. One of the main claims of psychohistorians is that violence and [[war]] are driven by child-rearing methods, child abuse, and infanticide. The last "psychogenetic mode," called the "helping stage", in which abuse and harsh discipline was condemned, was only reached in the mid-20<sup>th</sup> century. One of the problems with this, of course, is that [[correlation does not equal causation]]. Psychohistorians claim that improvements in childrearing led to improvements in society, but perhaps it happened the other way around. The "psychogenic modes" are divided by psychohistorians thusly:
*Infanticidal — Self-explanatory, societies in which infanticide is acceptable.
*Abandoning — Childcare is not a concern. Practices that include using non-parental hires (e.g., wet nurses) to care for children and [[pederasty]] is acceptable.
*Ambivalent — Precursor to more empathetic treatment of children, basic childcare practices are becoming more common.
*Intrusive — More involved childcare practices, but focused more on discipline. Harsh punishment is still acceptable, but practices such as infanticide and pederasty are looked down upon.
*Socializing — Similar to intrusive, but also including the introduction of compulsory schooling.
*Helping — Focused on the individuation of children, i.e., helping them realize and achieve their own goals instead of socialized goals.

This sort of determinism is evident in deMause's descriptions of [[World War I]], [[World War II]], and the [[Holocaust]].<ref>[https://psychohistory.com/articles/the-childhood-origins-of-the-holocaust/ Childhood Origins of the Holocaust] by Lloyd deMause</ref> DeMause reduces the causal factors of all these events down to harsh childrearing practices of late 19<sup>th</sup> century-early 20<sup>th</sup> century [[Germany]] and [[Austria]]. However, why such practices existed before then as well and never led to atrocities on the scale of the World Wars and the Holocaust is never explained. DeMause also mostly blows off the mountains of other historical factors, including Germany's history of [[anti-Semitism]] and various other social, cultural, [[political]], and [[economic]] influences.<ref>Falk, Avner. ''Anti-Semitism: A History and Psychoanalysis of Contemporary Hatred'', pp. 121-123. [http://books.google.com/books?id=VWL4ja2BbnEC&pg=PA121&lpg=PA121&dq=demause+holocaust&source=bl&ots=ixn_x2tf5I&sig=vf1cjDJJHB3Fq6QW9GifPOV0jWo&hl=en&ei=nLjITYD_FsL1gAeB26mMBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CEUQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=demause%20holocaust&f=false]</ref> However, it is often (as in [[Adolf Hitler]]'s upbringing) the case that children who are abused or below the 'norm' of their peers tend to resort to more extreme political ideologies.{{fact}}

The emphasis on childhood experiences in Freudian psychoanalysis requires psychohistorians to play down or largely ignore the influence of things such as [[genetics]] and environmental factors in early and later adulthood in explaining behavior.

==The grand Freudian conspiracy==
Many of the works read like psychoanalytic [[conspiracy theories]], with gratuitous amounts of [[cherry-picking|anomaly hunting]], [[PIDOOMA|fabrications]], and [[bullshit|speculation]]. For instance, in Freud's biography of Leonardo da Vinci, which many psychohistorians view as a prototypical work, he [[quote mining|quote mines]] a few of Leonardo's notes to fabricate the "vulture vision." The supposed vision of a vulture that Leonardo had as a child is actually just Freud combining a vision that Leonardo noted of a swallow with some of his other notes on vultures. Freud then proceeds to extrapolate just about every facet of Leonardo da Vinci's life from this non-existent childhood vision. Similarly, Erik Erikson, in his biography of [[Martin Luther]], draws on two secondhand reports of Luther's father having beaten him to explain just about everything in Luther's life.<ref>Stannard, Ch. 1, "The Lessons of Leonardo."</ref>

DeMause commits some egregious acts of [[cherry-picking]] in his attempts to predict acts of war through [[symbolism]]. In one instance, he claims that war is symbolically related to [[birth]] and [[death]] by cherry-picking a bunch of political cartoons which used that symbolism during the [[Gulf War]] period. However, a statistical analysis of the cartoons of the period showed no general change in the imagery of the political cartoons of the time.<ref>Goertzel, Ted. The Gulf War as a Mental Disorder? A Statistical Test of DeMause's Hypothesis. ''Political Psychology'', Vol. 14, No. 4, Dec., 1993 [http://www.jstor.org/pss/3791382]</ref>

==Organizations==
Lloyd deMause founded The Institute for Psychohistory in 1977, which publishes the ''Journal of Psychohistory'', and he writes most of its articles.

==The Foundation Series==
The term "psychohistory" was actually coined by [[Isaac Asimov]] in the ''Foundation'' series of [[sci-fi]] novels, first published in the 1940s. In the series, psychohistory refers to using mathematics to predict the future course of history.

==External links==
*[http://www.psychohistory.com/ The Institute for Psychohistory]
*[http://psychohistory.askdefine.com/ Psychohistory profile at AskDefine]
*[http://voegelinview.com/all-Current-Articles/lonergan-and-historiography-pt-1-psychohistory.html Psychohistory] by Thomas J. McPartland
*[http://www.jstor.org/pss/3790963 Review of ''Psycho/history'']

==Bibliography==
*Barzun, Jacques. ''Clio and the Doctors-Psycho-History Quanto-History & History''. [http://books.google.com/books?id=CqW82zyUoVAC&dq=clio+and+the+doctors&hl=en&ei=4O80TofwK4TcgQeHt6XsDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA]
*Eysenck, Hans. "Psycho-babble and Pseudo-history," ch. 7 in ''Decline and Fall of the Freudian Empire''. [http://books.google.com/books?id=oFbO0EDgBikC&pg=PA171&lpg=PA171&dq=anthropology+psychohistory&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false]
*Hunt, Lynn. "Psychology, Pschoanalysis and Historical Thought-The Misfortunes of Psychohistory," ch. 17 in Lloyd S. Kramer and Sarah C. Maza, eds., ''A Companion to Western Historical Thought''. [http://books.google.com/books?id=E2eKDjo4B_IC&pg=PA339&lpg=PA339&dq=psychohistory+is+a+pseudoscience&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false]
*Stannard, David E. ''Shrinking History: On Freud and the Failure of Psychohistory''. [http://books.google.com/books?id=EVdEEohyrXkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=david+e.+stannard&hl=en&ei=_u80TpauOoTUgQfh-fSRDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDwQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false]

==References==
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[[Category:History]]
[[Category:Pseudohistory]]
[[Category:Pseudoscience]]
[[Category:Psychology]]
[[Category:Pseudopsychology]]
[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]

Categories: History, Pseudohistory, Pseudoscience, Psychology, Pseudopsychology, Psychoanalysis