Psychobiographical Illustrations on Meaning and Identity in Sociocultural Contexts (Sociocultural Psychology of the Lifecourse) 3030812375, 9783030812379

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SOCIOCULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY OF THE LIFECOURSE

Psychobiographical Illustrations on Meaning and Identity in Sociocultural Contexts Edited by Claude-Hélène Mayer · Paul, J.P. Fouché Roelf Van Niekerk

Sociocultural Psychology of the Lifecourse

Series Editor Tania Zittoun Institute of Psychology and Education University of Neuchâtel Neuchâtel, Switzerland

The Sociocultural Psychology of the Lifecourse book series seeks to further our knowledge of the development of people in their complex sociocultural worlds, both empirically and theoretically. Its sociocultural psychological perspective proposes to account for the development of people as unique persons, with their perspective and subjectivity, within the social and cultural environments that guide them and yet which they can themselves transform. The book series showcases works that provide a complex understanding of development in the lifecourse, contribute to the theorization of the lifecourse and present original data  – based on case studies, segments of lives, or trajectories of living. It will also include books which present synthetic theoretical, epistemological or methodological contributions. By documenting the richness of lives and developing the relevant theoretical tools, books in this series will make a unique contribution to sociocultural, developmental psychology, and to the study of the courses of lives. Series Advisory Editors: Alex Gillespie Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science London School of Economics and Political Science United Kingdom Pernille Hviid Department of Psychology University of Copenhagen Denmark Jaan Valsiner Department of Communication and Psychology Aalborg University Denmark More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/15435

Claude-Hélène Mayer Paul, J. P. Fouché  •  Roelf Van Niekerk Editors

Psychobiographical Illustrations on Meaning and Identity in Sociocultural Contexts

Editors Claude-Hélène Mayer Department of Industrial Psychology and People Management University of Johannesburg Johannesburg, South Africa

Paul, J. P. Fouché Department of Psychology University of the Free State Bloemfontein, South Africa

Kulturwissenschaftliche Fakultät Europa Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder), Germany Roelf Van Niekerk Department of Industrial and Organisational Psychology Nelson Mandela University Port Elizabeth, South Africa

Sociocultural Psychology of the Lifecourse ISBN 978-3-030-81237-9    ISBN 978-3-030-81238-6 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81238-6 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Series Editor’s Preface

An Open Dialogue: Psychobiography and the Sociocultural Psychological Study of the Lifecourse Although we all live our life, there is nothing more difficult than accounting for the uniqueness, the complexity, and the variations of any given course of a life. Sociocultural psychology of the lifecourse has as program to account for the development of people in the courses of their lives, based on the assumption that it can only be understood as enabled and guided by the sociocultural context, while every person has a unique way to expand the given through his or her imagination and margin of freedom. It also considers that human beings are centrally engaged in sense-making, via language and all the other cultural and semiotic resources available to them or that they themselves create—in a fundamental dialogical process (Gillespie & Zittoun, 2015; Zittoun et al., 2013). Such a program was partly hoped for by Lev Vygotsky, and explored by many authors since. Hence, Lev Vygotsky, the psychologist devising a cultural psychology able to show the cultural emergence of “higher psychological process”, was also a reader of theatre, poetry and literature, and was fundamentally interested in the unique living person able to make free choices. He thus wrote both “[The central problem of all psychology: v

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Freedom].” (Lev S. Vygotsky about 1931–1933 in Zavershneva & Van der Veer, 2018, p. 210) and “Life not in the biological sense. (…) After all, it is not breathing and blood circulation that form the topic of a biography, of one’s existence, of a drama, of a novel, but the events of a human life, i.e., the problem of the psychologie concrète comes first” (Vygotsky, around 1933, Zavershneva & Van der Veer, 2018, p. 318). However, studying the “concrete” life and accounting for freedom in the course of a life is not an easy task. There are many difficulties: acceding the right data to account for people’s lives in development, being able to understand them in context, identifying how they make sense of these conditions, and theorising them, in such terms that we can learn something about human development in general. Although there are diverse attempts to develop such a psychology of the lifecourse inspired by a cultural psychological tradition, these are usually randomly distributed in journals, book chapters, or occasional volumes (for instance, to name a few: Akkerman & Bakker, 2019; Bernal Marcos et al., 2018; Cabra, 2021; Gillespie, 2005; Hviid, 2020; PerretClermont, 2008; Zittoun, 2007). This series has as program to bring forward authors and group of authors that centrally address the development of persons and that contribute to a sociocultural psychology of the lifecourse. In the first volume of this series, Mariann Märtsin (2019) focused on the courses of life of eight young people experiencing a double transition, mobility and personal transformations related to youth; based on this in-depth analysis, she could propose elements for an original theory of identity. Identity was thus understood as a semiotic process, a future-oriented guidance constantly renegotiated in the light of past, current and future experiences, rather than a static structure. In next volumes, we hopefully will explore other periods of the life of people, and various developmental processes connected to sense-making in their sociocultural environment. However, sociocultural psychology is not the only stream of psychological research devoted to the study of the course of life. Among many others, narrative psychology, psychoanalysis, or positive psychology have engaged in the same overall project (Bamberg, 2011; Freud, 1910; Lieblich, 2014; McAdams, 2001, 2013). The present volume is devoted to one of the most established tradition in the study of the courses of life:

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psychobiography. As indicated by Dan McAdams (this volume), the challenge is to be able to account for “real people with real lives” (p. X)—and perhaps the person as such can be found in psychobiography. Psychobiography has notably been inspired by the works of Freud (1910) and mainly Eric H. Erikson (1958, 1969; Erikson & Erikson, 1982). It has since developed in various directions and has led to many debates (Mullen, this volume); it is such a richness that the present volume reveals.

Innovative Methodologies for Rich Case Studies of the Course of Life In this volume, Claude-Hélène Mayer, Paul, J.P. Fouché and Roelf van Niekerk undertook the task of gathering the works of a wide range of authors working in psychobiography, and committed to in-depth studies of the lifecourse. These authors live and work in a wide variety of countries—often least heard in Anglo-Saxon academic debates—in China, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland South Africa, and the US—, in a variety of discipline—in psychotherapy, work psychology, education or cultural studies—and they have different forms of affiliations, as academics, practitioners or independent scholars. The editors thus managed to gather a very wide range of studies, united by this one core intuition: there is something important to be learned by a careful reconstruction, description, and in-depth analysis of another person’s course of life, whether in the present or in the past. There is therefore something striking emerging from the collection of these chapters; I will highlight four contributions. One of the first interests of this volume is that it shows the diversity of approach psychobiography has generated. Studies examine both “extraordinary” lives—lives that are meant to inspire us, are that are admired for their unusual achievements—such as Charles Baudelaire (Kelley, this volume), Angela Merkel (Sollman & Mayer, this volume) or Karl Lagerfeld (Mayer & Kelley, this volume)—and ordinary lives—women engaged in

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the anti-apartheid movement (Brunell & Nel, this volume) or older Irish adults (Allen et al., this volume). Second, the main epistemological contribution of psychobiography is its clear orientation towards case studies. For decades now, psychology has avoided the peculiarities of any given case or example, looking for answers to its questions in large cohorts, average tendencies and factorial links (Salvatore & Valsiner, 2010; Toomela, 2010). Psychobiography, as psychoanalysis and sociocultural psychology, has maintained a fundamental trust in case study base analysis—it is in the in-depth analysis of a specific person’s life in context that something can be learned, in the careful analysis of an institution that reveals its core dynamics, and so on (Marková et al., 2020; Zittoun, 2017). Such approach has been coined and defended as an idiographic approach (De Luca Picione, 2015; Molenaar, 2004; Molenaar & Valsiner, 2008; Salvatore & Valsiner, 2008). To construct such case studies, authors in this volume have used a variety of techniques. The data grounding the study of these lives are also diverse: memoirs and other self-writings (letters, notes) (Balint, this volume; Rab, this volume), but also, more creatively, visual material (Androutspoulo et al., this volume), non-verbal communication in public appearances and the media (Sollman & Mayer, this volume), webography of biographical material (Burnell & Nell, this volume), or repeated focus groups (Allen et al., this volume). A third contribution of this volume is thus its methodological creativity, which may invite researchers to go beyond the classical interview still privileged in qualitative psychological research. Fourth, it is to note that the chapters assembled here interestingly ask how much engaging in the analysis of other people’s lives transforms the psychobiographer (Köváry & Kovács, this volume; Wegner, this volume). This reflexivity reflects a dialogical understanding of research—one by which a researcher and their “subjects” of research always enter in a complex and dynamic relationship (Marková, 2016; Marková et al., 2020), both if the person researched is alive—as in an interview—or only accessible through secondary traces (writing and other biographical material). This dialogical understanding needs to be put to the fore: it can have longstanding implications. What do we expect from the analysis of another person’s life? How much is it about us? How much can we see

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what is in their lives, beyond our own positive or negative engagement— that is, beyond our counter-transference (Searles, 2005)? This question spills back on the question of the theoretical choices: are the conceptual tools used in analysis a way to confirm our believes, or to reveal new elements?

The Challenging: Developing Theory About the Course of Life Indeed, the more delicate question is, how to analyse biographical data, and for what purpose. In this collection of chapters, a great diversity of existing theoretical frameworks are applied to the data: analysis inspired by Eric Erikson (Burnell & Nel, this volume), Levinson (Rab, this volume) or McAdams (Androutsopoulou, this volume); the psychoanalytical works of Melanie Klein (Kelley, this volume) or Adler (Wegner, this volume); or concepts borrowed to Harkness and Super on developmental niches (Balint, this volume), career development (Van Niekerk, this volume) and the DSM IV (Shute, this volume). The epistemological question one may ask, is how are these theoretical frames or concepts chosen, what are they meant to show? Is it a matter to confirm an existing pattern identified in theory—this person actually is attached to a mother figure, this other is actually a psychopath? Is it to answer a researcher’s curiosity—what makes a given individual exceptional, how to explain their creativity? As appears from this quick overview, the present volume offers, within the large field of psychobiography, a large range of epistemological and theoretical orientation. As a sociocultural psychologist, my core question would be: How do these case studies enable us to develop general understandings about human development? How can we go back from the particular to the general? And at the heart of all this, what it is that develops, whether the person “made it” or not, became famous or not? To respond to such questions, the challenges are many. Here a few directions I wish to emphasise. First, the editors of this volume have done a remarkable effort of gathering and editing these diverse chapters. In their introduction and epilogue,

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they propose a more integrative outlook, highlighting future directions for psychobiography, such as becoming more transdisciplinary, and also emphasising the heterogeneity of the theoretical basis of psychobiography. As they say, it may be necessary to “start refining these theories, (…) adjusting them towards individual living in contemporary times, [and] developing new psychological models” (Mayer, Fouché & van Niekerk, this volume p. xxx.). Indeed, it is central to develop theories; yet in my view, it is not only an effort of individual researchers. The step after a careful collection of cases, as done in this volume, would be a dialogue across cases, In effect, in an ideographic science, the abductive movement is the only way to identify dynamics that are recurrent across cases or the variations, that may enable to identify new patterns or phenomena which are invisible in a single case (Molenaar & Valsiner, 2008; Pizarrosso & Valsiner, 2009; Reichertz, 2014; Zittoun, 2017). Whether this should be done by single scholars or as collaborative work is an open question (Cornish, 2020; Cornish et al., 2013; Zittoun et al., 2007); but it requires a dialogical and generalising effort. Second, approaching the courses of life from a sociocultural psychological perspective is based on a developmental assumption. What needs to be accounted for, is what remains the same and what changes, and the processes by which people’s activity and sense-making in a given environment may vary (Hviid, 2012; Toomela, 2003; Valsiner, 2008; van Geert, 2019). The theoretical implication of this, is that the conceptual apparatus to be used needs to be developmental, dynamic or processual. Categories or typologies of conduct, life-themes, and even phases in life are not dynamic in themselves; what can be dynamic, is how these come to be, are maintained, and transformed into a next potential stability. It is about newness and emergence—and perhaps loss. Also, a developmental outlook implies a careful reflection on the normative assumptions of what development is. What is “more” developed than what? What makes a life “exemplary”? Who should “learn” from the course of lives of others, and for what purpose? Third, the volume’s editors note that the book aims “at providing insights into the meaning, meaning-making and identity development” (Mayer, Fouché & van Niekerk, this volume p. xxx) of these various people. But what exactly are meaning and meaning-making? Meaning is not

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only about “making one’s life meaningful” for self or others. Meaning is actually the basis of living system’s capacity to organise their conduct (Neuman, 2008). This question is core for sociocultural psychology, who has decomposed sense-making to its fundamental elements as well as studied it in its most complex forms, and try to identify and describe the processes by which it is constructed, it evolves and it shape lives and societies (Josephs et al., 1999; Lawrence & Valsiner, 2003; Salvatore, 2019; Valsiner, 2001, 2020). In that respect, this could be an invitation to psychobiography to question meaning-making dynamic: how are these observable and expressed, and how do the many cases exposed here contribute to a more general understanding of sense-making? Finally, this foreword gives me the opportunity to clarify the term “sociocultural” as understood in sociocultural psychology. In this field, considering the sociocultural psychological grounding of human life does not mean to retrace their categories of belongings, or entering in identity politics, as seems now very common (Roudinesco, 2021). At the contrary: it claims for the universality of human activity, as it is enabled, guided, shaped by the social and cultural environment, and as this environment is always transformed by human conduct (Toomela, 2003; Valsiner, 2000). By social and cultural environment, we mean the general temporary, yet evolving, state of discourses and social representations, as it is reflected and instantiated more locally—in a region or a town or within a group or network of people. “Sociocultural” includes institutions, materially or immaterially defined; the material and geographical environment; organisations, positions, and actual people; people, that we live with or see occasionally or just dream of; and all that is humanly produced and circulating—values, discourses, objects, artworks; the symbolic, the material and the affective nature of our lives in society—all culturally produced, and shaped. To go back to the case studies carefully collected here, this would invite us to question the opportunities and constraints given to spies, artists, mathematicians in their historical, social, cultural, relational, environments: how did the current discourses shape their path, how did it create opportunities or constrain others, what can we learn across these, what is specific and what is general?

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Opening the Dialogue In “Psychobiographical illustrations on meaning and identity in sociocultural contexts”, the volume’s editors have gathered, like in a colourful bunch of flowers, a wide collection of chapters, each of them presenting a unique psychobiographical analysis of people’s courses of life. Psychobiography as a domain of enquiry has a relatively long history, and is visibly active all over the world. Bringing such studies in the series Sociocultural psychology of the lifecourse is like meeting a distant relative— we have heard about each other, but do not know each other very well, and we believe we have many things to say to each other. Hence, this volume is thus an invitation for further dialogue—understanding the courses of human life is what is most fascinating, and most difficult Champ-du-Moulin, France November 2021

Tania Zittoun

References Akkerman, S. F., & Bakker, A. (2019). Persons pursuing multiple objects of interest in multiple contexts. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 34(1), 1–24. 10.1007/s10212-018-0400-2 Bamberg, M. (2011). Who am I? Narration and its contribution to self and identity. Theory & Psychology, 21(1), 3–24. 10.1177/0959354309355852 Bernal Marcos, M.  J. B., Castro-Tejerina, J., & Trejo, F.  B. (2018). Hooked on the blues: Technical and expressive continuities between life and music. Culture & Psychology, 24(1), 80–95. 10.1177/1354067X17729625 Cabra, M. (2021). Doing gender through patterns. International Review of Theoretical Psychologies, 1(2), 2. https://tidsskrift.dk/irtp/article/ view/128012

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Cornish, F. (2020). Towards a dialogical methodology for single case studies. Culture & Psychology, 26, 139–152. 10.1177/1354067X19894925 Cornish, F., Gillespie, A., & Zittoun, T. (2013). Collaborative data analysis. In U.  Flick (Ed.), Handbook of qualitative data analysis (pp. 79–93). Sage. De Luca Picione, R. (2015). The idiographic approach in psychological research. The challenge of overcoming old distinctions without risking to homogenize. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 49(3), 360–370. 10.1007/s12124-015-9307-5 Erikson, E. H. (1958). Young man Luther: A study in psychoanalysis and history. W. W. Norton & Company. Erikson, E. H. (1969). Gandhi’s truth: On the origins of militant nonviolence. W. W. Norton & Company. Erikson, E. H., & Erikson, J. M. (1982). The life cycle completed (extended version). W. W. Norton & Company. Freud, S. (1910). Leonardo da Vinci and a memory of his childhood. In J. Strachey (Ed.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud: Vol. XI (New Edition, pp. 57–137). Vintage. Gillespie, A. (2005). Malcolm X and his autobiography: Identity development and self-narration. Culture & Psychology, 11(1), 77–88. Gillespie, A., & Zittoun, T. (2015). Social and psychological movement: Weaving individual experience into society. In B.  Wagoner, N.  Chaudhary, & P.  Hviid (Eds.), Integrating experiences: Body and mind moving between contexts (pp. 279–294). Information Age Publishing. Hviid, P. (2012). ‘Remaining the same’ and children’s experience of development. In M. Hedegaard, K. Aronsson, C. Hojholt, & O. Ulvik (Eds.), Children, childhood, and everyday life: Children’s perspectives (pp. 37–52). Information Age Publishing, Inc. Hviid, P. (2020). Aged experience—A cultural developmental investigation. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 100386. 10.1016/j. lcsi.2020.100386 Josephs, I. E., Valsiner, J., & Surgan, S. E. (1999). The process of meaning construction. Dissecting the flow of semiotic activity. In

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J.  Brandstädter & R.  M. Lerner (Eds.), Action & Self-development. Theory and research through the life-span (pp. 257–282). Sage. Lawrence, J. A., & Valsiner, J. (2003). Making personal sense: An account of basic internalization and externalization processes. Theory & Psychology, 13(6), 723–752. https://crypto.unil.ch/cgi/content/ abstract/13/6/,DanaInfo=tap.sagepub.com+723 Lieblich, A. (2014). Narratives of positive aging: Seaside stories. Oxford University Press. Marková, I. (2016). The dialogical mind: Common sense and ethics. Cambridge University Press. Marková, I., Zadeh, S., & Zittoun, T. (2020). Introduction to the special issue on generalisation from dialogical single case studies. Culture & Psychology, 26(1), 3–24. 10.1177/1354067X19888193 Märtsin, M. (2019). Identity development in the lifecourse: A semiotic cultural approach to transitions in early adulthood. Palgrave Macmillan. 10.1007/978-3-030-27753-6 McAdams, D. P. (2001). The psychology of life stories. Review of General Psychology, 5(2), 100–122. McAdams, D. P. (2013). The redemptive self: Stories Americans live by— revised and expanded edition. Oxford University Press. Molenaar, P.  C. M. (2004). A manifesto on psychology as idiographic science: Bringing the person back into scientific psychology, this time forever. Measurement: Interdisciplinary Research & Perspective, 2(4), 201–218. 10.1207/s15366359mea0204_1 Molenaar, P.  C. M., & Valsiner, J. (2008). How generalization works through the single case: A simple idiographic process analysis of an individual psychotherapy. In S.  Salvatore, J.  Valsiner, S.  StroutYagodzynski, & J.  Clegg (Eds.), YIS.  Yearbook of ideographic science (pp. 23–38). Firera Publishing. Neuman, Y. (2008). Reviving the living: Meaning making in living systems. Elsevier. Perret-Clermont, A.-N. (2008). Piaget, his elders and his peers. In A.-N.  Perret-Clermont & J.-M.  Barrelet (Eds.), Jean Piaget and Neuchātel: The learner and the scholar (pp. 202–231). Routledge. Pizarrosso, N., & Valsiner, J. (2009). Why developmental psychology is not developmental: Moving towards abductive methodology. Paper presented

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at the Society of Research in Child Development, Denver, CO (3 April). Reichertz, J. (2014). Induction, deduction, abduction. In U. Flick (Ed.), The Sage handbook of qualitative research (pp. 123–135). SAGE Publications Ltd. Roudinesco, E. (2021). Soi-même comme un roi. Essai sur les dérives identitaires. Seuil. Salvatore, S. (2019). Beyond the meaning given. The meaning as explanandum. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 53(4), 632–643. 10.1007/s12124-019-9472-z Salvatore, S., & Valsiner, J. (2008). Ideographic science on its way: Toward making sense of psychology. In S.  Salvatore, J.  Valsiner, S. Strout-Yagodzynski, & J. Clegg (Eds.), YIS. Yearbook of ideographic science (Vol. 1, pp. 9–19). Firera Publishing. Salvatore, S., & Valsiner, J. (2010). Between the general and the unique: Overcoming the nomothetic versus idiographic opposition. Theory & Psychology, 20(6), 817–833. 10.1177/0959354310381156 Searles, H. (2005). Le contre-transfert. Editions Gallimard. Toomela, A. (Ed.). (2003). Cultural guidance in the development of the human mind. Ablex Publishing Corporation. Toomela, A. (2010). Modern mainstream psychology is the best? Noncumulative, historically blind, fragmented, atheorical. In A. Toomela & J. Valsiner (Eds.), Methodological thinking in Psychology: 60 years gone astray? (pp. 1–26). Information Age Publishing. Valsiner, J. (2000). Culture and human development. Sage. Valsiner, J. (2001). Process structure of semiotic mediation in human development. Human Development, 44, 84–97. Valsiner, J. (2008). Open intransitivity cycles in development and education: Pathways to synthesis. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 23(2), 131. 10.1007/BF03172741 Valsiner, J. (2020). Sensuality in human living: Cultural psychology of human affect. Springer. van Geert, P. L. C. (2019). Dynamic systems, process and development. Human Development, 63(3–4), 153–179. 10.1159/000503825 Zavershneva, E., & Van der Veer, R. (2018). Vygotsky’s notebooks. A selection. Springer.

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Zittoun, T. (2007). Dynamics of interiority. Ruptures and transitions in the self development. In L. M. Simão & J. Valsiner (Eds.), Otherness in question: Development of the self (pp. 187–214). Information Age Publishing. Zittoun, T. (2017). Modalities of generalization through single case studies. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 51(2), 171–194. 10.1007/s12124-016-9367-1 Zittoun, T., Baucal, A., Cornish, F., & Gillespie, A. (2007). Collaborative research, knowledge and emergence. Integrative Journal for Psychological and Behavioral Science, 41(2), 208–217. Zittoun, T., Valsiner, J., Vedeler, D., Salgado, J., Gonçalves, M., & Ferring, D. (2013). Human development in the lifecourse. Melodies of living. Cambridge University Press.

Foreword

Many people the world over mistakenly believe that psychology is fundamentally about the study of people. But, of course, psychology is not mainly that. Psychologists examine everything from the brain’s emotional processing to clinical symptoms. But as scientists, they rarely focus on individual people—that is, real people with real lives, specific human beings, be they extraordinary (Albert Einstein, Mother Teresa) or ordinary (your mother, my brother), who move and breathe and work and love in specific material settings and cultural contexts. In a famous paper written over 50 years ago, the personality psychologist Rae Carlson posed a vexing question for psychological scientists: “Where is the person in personality research?” The answer back then was this: “Nowhere!” But today we have a better answer: The person may be found in psychobiography. And psychobiography holds the promise of changing psychology for the better. By turning psychologists’ attention towards individual persons, psychobiography provides tools, frameworks, and qualities of mind that promise to enrich psychological science. By framing the study of persons within broad sociocultural and historical settings, moreover, psychobiography helps to more fully contextualize psychological inquiry. And by focusing, as this volume does, on issues of meaning and identity, psychobiography addresses pressing existential questions for world citizens in the twenty-first century. xvii

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This volume brings together an international group of distinguished scholars who undertake psychobiographical investigations of (mainly) prominent individual persons. Focusing on notable authors, artists, politicians, social activists, spies, and fashion designers, among others, the chapters shed psychological light on dark mysteries in lives. How did these notable people struggle with meaning and purpose in their lives? How did their work—and their sense of life vocation—contribute to meaning, and sometimes undermine it? How did their understanding of who they were and what their proper place in the world should be change markedly over the life course? When Sigmund Freud wrote what is generally considered to be the first psychobiography (a study of Leonardo da Vinci, published in 1910), he relied on his own emerging psychoanalytic theory to make sense of the case. For decades after, psychobiography slanted strongly in a psychoanalytic direction. Today, however, psychologically minded biographers find inspiration from a wide range of theoretical traditions (and methodologies) in psychology and related fields. Increasingly, moreover, psychobiography draws upon well replicated findings from empirical research. As seen in many of the chapters herein, psychobiography has opened up new avenues of communication with mainstream psychological science. Evidence-based psychological theory has now come to inform the study of the biographical case. And, in a reciprocal manner, psychobiographies themselves may now inform other lines of empirical research. Psychology may be in the process of becoming an increasingly biographical science. The stimulating papers in this volume, therefore, point to the emergence of a more person-centered psychology for the years ahead, as we bring real people back onto the psychological stage. Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA 

Dan P. McAdams

Acknowledgements

First of all, we would like to thank Professor Vlad Glaveanu, Head of Psychology, Sociology and Professional Counseling at Webster University in Geneva, Switzerland. Vlad is also the editor of Europe’s Journal of Psychology (EJOP). When we started to run a special issue on psychobiography in 2020, for a 2021 issue, and there was an overwhelming response to our call for papers, Vlad advised us to run a book project on psychobiography within the Series of Sociocultural Psychology of the Lifecourse with Palgrave. We would like to thank Vlad for this idea since, without him, this book would not have come into existence. Further, we would like to thank our contributors and authors from across cultures, countries and continents who have put in their valuable time and insights to publish with us in this book on psychobiographical illustrations on meaning and identity in various socio-cultural contexts. Additional thanks we would like to express to Elisabeth Vanderheiden for her support in the technical editing of the book and for preparing all chapter for a smooth submission and publishing process. Finally, we would also like to thank our editors at Palgrave for their guidance and support.

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Contents

1 Editorial: Psychobiographical Illustrations on Meaning and Identity in Sociocultural Contexts  1 Claude-Hélène Mayer, Paul, J. P. Fouché, and Roelf Van Niekerk 2 Discovering the “I” in the “THOU”. The Psychological Effects of Psychobiographical Research on The Personality of The Researcher 21 Zoltán Kőváry and Asztrik Kovács 3 The Oldest Psychobiography in the World? (Psychobiography of Socrates in the Lvov-Warsaw School) 55 Amadeusz Citlak 4 Exploring Non-Verbal Communication and Body Language in Creating a Meaningful Life: Angela Merkel in Psychobiography 75 Ulrich Sollmann and Claude-Hélène Mayer

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5 A Comparative Psychobiographical Exploration of the Role of Generativity in Meaning Making for Two Women in the Anti-apartheid Movement 97 Barbara Burnell and Carla Nel 6 “I as Photographer”: A Visual Narrative Analysis of Vivian Maier’s Self-Portraits119 Athena Androutsopoulou, Charikleia Tsatsaroni, Georgia Koutsavgousti, and Kia Thanopoulou 7 Variables of a Life’s Equation. Contribution to Zoltan Paul Dienes’ Psychobiography143 Ágnes Bálint 8 ‘Aristocrat of the underground’: Karl Lagerfeld’s Romantic Self-fashioning as a Meaningful Transformation of Shame165 Claude-Hélène Mayer and James L. Kelley 9 Was British Cold War Spy and Double Agent Kim Philby a Successful Psychopath? A Psychobiographical Analysis187 Rosalyn H. Shute 10 The Fanatic of Meaning-Making: The Psychobiographical Case Study of Loránt Hegedüs211 Virág Rab 11 “Everything is reparable”: A Psychobiography of Charles Baudelaire239 James L. Kelley 12 The Elusiveness of Identity and Meaning: The Lonely Journey of Henri Nouwen263 Roelf Van Niekerk, Claude-Hélène Mayer, and Paul, J. P. Fouché

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13 Broadening the Parameters of the Psychobiography: The Character Motivations of the ‘Ordinary’ Extraordinary285 Robert F. Mullen 14 Social Justice in Psychobiography: When That Sky Was Bluest for W.E.B. Du Bois303 Benjamin Robert Wegner 15 What We Talk About When We Talk About the Past: Discursive Psychological Analysis of Autobiographical Reminiscence in Older Irish Adults327 Andrew P. Allen, Caoilainn Doyle, Caragh Marie Doyle, Cormac Monaghan, Noel Fitzpatrick, and Richard A. P. Roche 16 Epilog: Reflections on the Futures of Psychobiography345 Claude-Hélène Mayer, Paul, J. P. Fouché, and Roelf Van Niekerk Index357

Notes on Contributors

Andrew  P.  Allen  is a Research Fellow at Trinity College Dublin. He completed the work described in this manuscript at Maynooth University. He previously worked as a postdoctoral researcher at University College Cork, and completed his PhD in psychology at Cardiff University. He is the current Chair of the Irish Research Staff Association, and a Senior Editor at Europe’s Journal of Psychology. Athena Androutsopoulou,  PhD, EuroPsy, ECP, is a clinical psychologist and a systemic psychotherapist. She received her doctorate at the University of Bath, UK. She works in private practice with individuals, families and groups. She is co-director of ‘Logo Psychis-Training and Research Institute for Systemic Psychotherapy (logopsychis.gr), Athens, Greece, where she trains and supervises therapists in an enriched systemic approach (SANE-System Attachment Narrative Encephalon®). She was visiting lecturer at the University of Athens, teaching Qualitative Research Methods. She has published articles and chapters in a number of international psychology and psychotherapy journals and books. She has authored a book on dreams-as-narratives and has co-edited two systemic cases handbooks. She has authored four children books, one of which was shortlisted for the Greek State Award on Children’s Literature. Ágnes Bálint,  Dr. habil. PhD, is a psychologist in Pécs, Hungary. She works at the University of Pécs (Hungary), as an associate professor at the xxv

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Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Institute of Education Sciences. She graduated as a teacher in English and Hungarian (literature and linguistics) and in Psychology. She obtained her Ph.D. degree and habilitation in Psychology at the University of Pécs. She specializes in the psychology of literature, psychobiography, cognitive neuroscience, and the psychology of learning. She has published two monographs in the field of psychobiography and more than 60 articles and book chapters on a variety of topics that focus on exceptional individuals or the path to effective learning. Barbara Burnell, PhD  is a Clinical Psychologist in private practice and an occasional associate clinical supervisor in the Department of Psychology at the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa. She completed her doctoral dissertation in the field of psychobiography and has since published in the field, most recently as a contributor to the book New Trends in Psychobiography (Mayer & Kovary, 2019). Amadeusz  Citlak, PhD  graduate of the Warsaw University (2003— M.A. in psychology) and the Christian Theological Academy in Warsaw (2001—M.A. in biblical sciences). 2005–2010—Ph.D. study: Graduate School for Social Research at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. 2011—Ph.D. degree in psychology. From 2012 an adjunct professor at the Institute of Psychology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The area of scientific interests includes the psychology of religion, and cultural-historical psychology, especially in Lvov-Warsaw School of thought paradigm. I am interested in the problem of the linguistic image of the world and the role of language in the transmission of social knowledge. The main goal of my latest scientific project is a psychological analysis of the historical documents as the expression of moral and social beliefs. Caoilainn Doyle  completed the work described in this manuscript at Maynooth University, and has conducted postdoctoral work at the University of California, San Francisco. She completed her PhD at Dublin City University, and has previously published in the area of executive function and dyslexia. She is the CEO and founder of Nuvo Wellness.

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Caragh Marie Doyle  is a psychology student at Maynooth University. She is greatly interested in the field of neuropsychology, specifically the topic of neurodegenerative diseases and rehabilitation. Caragh is currently on work placement with Peamount Hospital where she is working as part of an interdisciplinary team on a project aiming to develop the Health and Wellness Centre. Noel Fitzpatrick  doc ès lettres, Paris VII) is Professor of Philosophy and Aesthetics, and the Dean of GradCAM (since 2012). He is also the Head of Leaning and Research Development at the College of Arts and Tourism at the TU Dublin (Dublin Institute of Technology). He is a leading member of the European Artistic Research Network, SHARE and European Society of Aesthetics. Noel is a member of Ars Industrialis, (Founded by Bernard Stiegler) and a founding member of the Digital Studies Network at the l’institut de recherche et innovation (IRI) at the Pompidou Centre in Paris. Prof. Fitzpatrick has been awarded research funding from the Irish Research Council and is a Marie-Curie Research Fellow currently co-ordinator of the Research and Innovation Staff Exchange Real Smart Cities project (realsms.eu). He was also chairperson of the Irish Humanities Alliance 2017–2018 and vice chair 2016–2017 and is now chair of the EU working Group of the IHA. Noel has also acted as curator for the GradCAM event at the research pavilion (supported by the Uni Arts Helsinki) Utopia of Access in 2017. Paul, J. P. Fouché, DPhil  is a full-professor of Counselling Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, in South Africa. Paul has published psychobiographical and psychohistorical articles in various journals. Paul lectures in the post-­ graduate psychology programs and serves as vice-chair on the research committee of the Faculty of the Humanities, as well as on Senate. His interest is in the field of psychobiography and psychohistory and he acts as research supervisor to post-graduate scholars undertaking life history research. James L. Kelley  Independent Scholar, after receiving his education at three American universities, scholar James L. Kelley settled in to a life of researching and writing about, among other things, the fascinating lives

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of religious notables. His first two books are A Realism of Glory: Lectures on Christology in the Works of Protopresbyter John Romanides (Rollinsford, NH: Orthodox Research Institute), published in 2009, and Anatomyzing Divinity: Studies in Science, Esotericism and Political Theology (Walterville, OR: TrineDay), published in 2011. His third book, Orthodoxy, History, and Esotericism: New Studies (Dewdney, B.C.: Synaxis Press, 2016), is a history of esoteric influences on Western religious culture. Georgia Koutsavgousti, Msc  is a Work, Organizational and Personnel Psychologist and systemic psychotherapist. She holds a BSc in Psychology from the University of Athens, a BSc in Education from the University of Patras, and a joint Master degree in Work-Organizational and Personnel Psychology (WOP-P) from the University of Paris V and University of Valencia. She has completed her training in Systemic Psychotherapy at ‘Logo Psychis’—Training and Research Institute for Systemic Psychotherapy”, Athens, Greece, and has participated in a number of psychobiography projects launched by the Institute. She has worked in Education as Deputy Head and Scientific Supervisor of teachers implementing Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) programs. She currently provides career counseling at the Greek Public Employment Service, and also works as psychotherapist in private practice. Asztrik  Kovács  is a Ph.D. student specializing in qualitative research and intercultural psychology at Institute of Psychology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary. His studies are focused on qualitative research methodology and the experience of various groups of international students. Zoltán Kőváry,  PhD habil, is an associate professor at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary. He is a clinical psychologist, an expert in existential counselling and a litterateur & linguist. Zoltán Kőváry is an internationally recognized representative of modern psychobiography, an author of several articles in this field as well as a co-editor of the Springer handbook called “New Trends in Psychobiography”. Claude-Hélène  Mayer,  Dr. habil., PhD, PhD, is a Professor in Industrial and Organisational Psychology at the Department of Industrial

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Psychology and People Management at the University of Johannesburg, an Adjunct Professor at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany and a Senior Research Associate at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. She holds a Ph.D. in psychology (University of Pretoria, South Africa), a Ph.D. in management (Rhodes University, South Africa), a doctorate (Georg-August University, Germany) in political sciences (socio-cultural anthropology and intercultural didactics), and a habilitation (European University Viadrina, Germany) in psychology with focus on work, organizational, and cultural psychology. She has published several monographs, text collections, accredited journal articles, and special issues on transcultural mental health, sense of coherence, shame, culture and health, transcultural conflict management and mediation, women in leadership in culturally diverse work contexts, constellation work, coaching, and psychobiography. Cormac  Monaghan  is a psychology student at Maynooth University. He is currently carrying out an internship in the Connolly Counselling Centre where he assists the therapists and psychologists in a range of different tasks, both research and work related. Robert F. Mullen  is the director of ReChanneling Inc, an organization dedicated to research and development of methods to mitigate symptoms of physiological dysfunction and discomfort. It does this by targeting the personality through empathy, collaboration, and program integration. ReChanneling is a paradigmatic approach to historically and clinically practical approaches. Mullen holds seminars, practicums, and workshops on mitigating symptoms of physiological dysfunction and discomfort by rechanneling negative perspective and self-­image to positivity and optimum human functioning. A published worldwide academic author, Mullen’s dissertation focused on advanced human potential―the capacity to harness the intrinsic aptitude for extraordinary living and the potential to lift the human spirit. His academic disciplines include contemporary behavior, modified psychobiography, and method psychology. Carla Nel, PhD  is a Clinical Psychologist and lecturer in the Department of Psychology at the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa. She completed her PhD (Clinical Psychology) in the field of psy-

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chobiography. She acts as a research supervisor to post-graduate scholars undertaking life history research and continues to pursue psychobiographical research projects. She was recently a contributor to the book New Trends in Psychobiography (Mayer & Kovary, 2019). Virág  Rab,  Dr. habil. PhD, is a historian at the Department of Contemporary History, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Pécs, Hungary. She earned her PhD degree in 2007 and her Habilitation degree in 2020. She has been the head of Grastyán Endre College for Advanced Studies since 2002. She has published two monographs and edited several books. She is originally an economic historian but her research has a truly interdisciplinary character. The special fields of her interest are psychiatric consequences of WW1, social networks, innovative research and teaching methods. She has been conducting research on identity and locality (developing cooperative board games) for seven years. Her current research focuses on psychobiography. Richard  A.  P.  Roche  is an Associate Professor at the Department of Psychology, Maynooth University, where he has been employed since 2005, following undergraduate, postgraduate and postdoctoral study at Trinity College, Dublin. His areas of interest are cognitive neuroscience/ neuropsychology, particularly memory, ageing, dementia, stroke, brain injury and synaesthesia. To date he has published 35 research articles, several book chapters and two books, and acted as Associate Editor for Frontiers in Human Neuroscience (2014–2016). He has received over €1.2 million in research funding. He served on the Neuroscience Ireland committee from 2005–2014, as Vice-President 2010–2012 and President 2012–2014, and was the founding President of the Irish Brain Council in 2013. Rosalyn H. Shute, BSc, PhD  is a British-Australian developmental psychologist and former teacher and practitioner of clinical child psychology. An Adjunct Professor at Flinders University, South Australia, she has published widely in areas related to the wellbeing of young people, especially school peer victimization. Her recent books for Routledge include Child development: Theories and critical perspectives (with co-author Phillip Slee, 2015), Mental health and wellbeing through schools: The

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way forward (co-editor Slee, 2016) and Clinical psychology and adolescent girls in a postfeminist era (2018). Recent invited contributions have been on child and adolescent development, for the Australian handbook of school psychology (co-author John Hogan, 2017) and for the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education, reviewing mindfulness programs for schools (2020). Ulrich Sollmann,  Dipl. rer. soc., is a social scientist, body psychotherapist, executive coach in management and politics, publicist, blogger. He is especially engaged in the field of transcultural communication ethnology, infant observation, person and systemic-centered concepts of leadership and coaching, health behaviour, and shame. Kia Thanopoulou,  (Kyriaki) MA, EuroPsy, ECP, is a clinical psychologist and systemic psychotherapist. She holds a BA from the University of Athens and an MA from the University of Warwick, UK. She works at the Family Therapy Unit of the Psychiatric Hospital of Attica, Greece. Her multiple roles at the Unit include, therapy services for the public, as well as teaching and supervising trainees in systemic and family therapy. She is founding member and member of the editorial committee of the electronic journal of The Hellenic Systemic Thinking and Family Therapy Association (HESTAFTA) “Systemic Thinking & Psychotherapy”. She has co-edited a book on the history and ­contribution of the Family Therapy Unit. She has also published numerous articles and book chapters on the topic of mourning and trauma. Charikleia Tsatsaroni, PhD  is a psychologist and systemic psychotherapist. She holds a BA in psychology and MA in School Psychology from the University of Athens, Greece, and an MA in Counseling, and a PhD in Psychology from Boston University, USA. She also owns an international Certificate of the Special Postgraduate Training Program in Management and Social Planning in the Field of Drug Dependence/ Addiction Treatment. She is currently Head of the Department of Research and Assessment at the Greek Organization Against Drugs (OKANA) and has a number of conference presentations and publications in the field. She trained in Systemic Psychotherapy at “Logo PsychisTraining and Research Institute for Systemic Psychotherapy”, Athens,

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Greece, and has participated in a number of psychobiography projects launched by the Institute. Roelf Van Niekerk  is a registered Clinical and Industrial Psychologist as well as a Master Human Resource Practitioner. He obtained a BA Theology, BA Honours (Psychology), and MA (Industrial Psychology) at the University of Stellenbosch; a MA (Clinical Psychology) and D Phil (Psychology) at the University of Port Elizabeth, and a M Ed (General Education Theory and Practice) at Rhodes University. Prof Van Niekerk is currently the Director: School of Industrial Psychology and Human Resources at the Nelson Mandela University. He was previously employed at the Universities of Port Elizabeth, Free State, Fort Hare, and Rhodes University. Prof Van Niekerk’s research focus is on psychobiographical research projects, particularly in the fields of personality-, career-, and leadership development. He teaches a range of modules including psychological assessment, career management, organisational development, professional ethics and practice, coaching and consulting, personality psychology, psychotherapy, and psychopathology. Benjamin  Robert  Wegner,  PsyD, Therapist, Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Applied Clinical Psychology, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Los Angeles Campus. Benjamin is a postdoctoral clinician and researcher interested in psychobiography, community mental health, the history of psychology, and philosophy. He completed his psychobiographical dissertation on the social psychologist Philip Brickman. Benjamin works as a therapist in a community mental health setting in Los Angeles, and is working towards licensure as a clinical psychologist. He is passionate about harm reduction, humanistic-existential therapy, and systemic approaches to mental health care.

List of Figures

Fig. 10.1 Visual overview of key findings Fig. 13.1 Genesis of the psychobiography Fig. 14.1 ADDRREESSSINGSS version

221 294 308

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List of Tables

Table 2.1 Table 10.1 Table 10.2 Table 11.1

Themes and subthemes in the interviews 41 Levinson’s psychosocial developmental theory 215 Meaning in Hegedüs’ life 220 Model of Baudelaire’s family dynamics: sacred/profane commerce254 Table 12.1 Data processing and analysis matrix 266

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1 Editorial: Psychobiographical Illustrations on Meaning and Identity in Sociocultural Contexts Claude-Hélène Mayer, Paul, J. P. Fouché, and Roelf Van Niekerk

I am a citizen of the world. —Sylvia Beach, Bookseller, 1887–1962

1

A Brief Introduction

Psychobiographical research focuses on the lives of extraordinary individuals (Mayer & Kovary, 2019). In essence, psychobiographies are biographies that employ psychological theory to clarify and illuminate historically significant experiences, events, and contributions within an extraordinary person’s life and in the relevant socio-cultural contexts

C.-H. Mayer (*) Department of Industrial Psychology and People Management, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa Kulturwissenschaftliche Fakultät, Europa Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 C.-H. Mayer et al. (eds.), Psychobiographical Illustrations on Meaning and Identity in Sociocultural Contexts, Sociocultural Psychology of the Lifecourse, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81238-6_1

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(Fouché & van Niekerk, 2010). During the past decades psychobiographical research has developed into a vibrant and popular area of research and gained considerable international interest. The study of individuals is an intriguing and instructive field in psychology that contributes to the holistic understanding of individual behaviour and experiences within sociocultural and historical contexts (Kováry, 2011). Extraordinary individuals have been studied from multiple perspectives. A range of methodological and theoretical approaches have been developed to provide alternative interpretations of entire lives or selected life events. The approaches how psychobiography is written has changed over time and differs according to the socio-cultural context of the psychobiographer (du Plessis, 2016; Schultz, 2005; Fouché, 2015; Fouché & van Niekerk, 2010; Mayer & Kovary, 2019). This volume for the book series “Sociocultural Psychology of the Lifecourse” will explore psychobiographical illustrations with special focus on meaning making and identity development in the life and works of extraordinary individuals. While the book series seeks “to further the knowledge of the development of people in their complex sociocultural worlds” (Zittoun, 2019), this volume focuses on the two core topics due to the importance to investigate how people find meaning and create identity within their sociocultural contexts (Fouché et  al., 2015; Mayer, 2005, 2008; Mullen, 2019). Meaning-making and identity development, particularly in extraordinary individuals, can become role models for the psychological development of individuals across the lifecourse (Mayer, 2017; Wegner, 2021 in this book). It can further elucidate how thoughts are formulated, emotions are experienced, actions

P. J. P. Fouché Department of Psychology, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa e-mail: [email protected] R. Van Niekerk Department of Industrial and Organisational Psychology, Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa e-mail: [email protected]

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are constructed, and ultimately, how lives are lived. Identity constructions are embedded in meaning-­making processes and reconstructed through encounters with the socio-cultural worlds in which individuals aim at constructing meaning in the context of their own past present and future (Martsin, 2019). Psychobiographical investigations that take meaning, identities, as well as socio-cultural and political contexts into account have not yet been published in a comprehensive, edited volume. So far, psychobiographies have mainly been based on specific psychological theories, but have not yet been focused on a specific volume with regard to selected topics, such as identity development and meaningfulness research. The purpose of this book is to present psychobiographical work on meaning and identity in the life of extraordinary and ordinary individuals from various sociocultural backgrounds. Selected authors lead a discourse to expand the view on the extraordinary individual, and emphasise the importance to include the “ordinary individual” in psychobiographical research (see Mullen, 2021 in this book; Allen et al., 2021 in this book). The editors further seek to give researchers, scholars and scientists from various sociocultural and language backgrounds a voice in meaning-making and identity development in psychobiographies. The aim of this book is to explore in-depth how meaning and identity are created by presenting psychobiographical illustrations of extraordinary individuals in different sociocultural backgrounds and create a deeper understanding of the extraordinary individual in relation to, and in interplay with, the socio-cultural, political, historical and environmental contexts across the life span. You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life. —Albert Camus, French philosopher, 1913–1960

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2

Meaning-making in Psychobiography

What makes for a meaningful life? And how do individuals manage to make their life meaningful? Meaning-making can be understood as the process of how individuals construct and thereby make meaning of their own life events, their relationships and on their own identity (Attig, 1996). A large amount of research has focused on meaning-making during the past years and the search for meaning in life and beyond has become a quest within itself (e.g, Fouché et al., 2016; Fouché et al., 2018; Yalom, 1980; Frankl, 1959). The question of meaning has thereby transcended its original discipline of philosophy and has been researched from multidisciplinary perspectives. Often, the literature on meaning and meaningmaking aims at defining, contributing to or constructing a meaningful life (van Tongeren & Showalter van Tongeren, 2020). One of the major discourses in meaning-making is based around the question, if life is per se meaningful or if meaningfulness needs to be created through human thought, interaction, emotion and the like (Zaretsky, 2013; Hendricks, 2018). Mayer (2021a) has recently discussed the concept of meaning in a psychobiographical investigation on the novelist, philosopher and journalist Albert Camus and its implications for humans in the Covid-19 pandemic. In this study, it is concluded that, based on Camus, meaning must be created and that a life in itself does not contain meaning as long as meaning is not applied by the individual within its socio-cultural context. It is further on contested that happiness and strengths are needed to overcome life’s pain, suppering and challenges and to apply meaning beyond the immediate obstacles an individual experiences in life (Mayer, 2021a). Surely, during extraordinary times of pain and suffering, as, for example in the Covid-19 pandemic, meaningof-life questions increase (Schnell & Krampe, 2020) and often meaninglessness goes hand-in-hand with loss of identity, anxiety and individual crisis. The psychobiography on Camus, however, also touches on the issue of identity of Camus as a pied noir, a French person growing up in A French-African colony. It contributes to what Wegner (2020b, 2021 in this book, Chap. 14) has called for: more socially just studies in psychobiography who deal with inclusiveness of identity intersectionalities.

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Singer (2004) has emphasized that particularly narrative identity research has contributed to meaning-making across the life span, thereby referring to concepts of memory, sense of self, autobiographical knowledge and accounts of individual and social meaning-making. Thereby, meaning-making, as Singer (2004) points out, occurs through different methods, such as McAdams’ (1985) nuclear life episode descriptions or memorable events (Pillemer, 1998). Thereby, Singer (2004) points out that adults usually make a huge effort to create meaning from their own personal identity narrations and that individuals might be meaning seekers per se as part of the process which Singer and Bluck (2001) call “autobiographical reasoning”. Other psychobiographical researchers point out that meaning is created in psychobiographical accounts when, for example, when complex personality theories are used to (re-)construct the lives of extraordinary individuals (e.g. Oosthuizen, 2018). Oosthuizen (2018, p. 358), in his study on Lewis, highlights the importance of meaning in the life of his research subject: From the study, it became clear that Lewis embodied three distinct roles that were meaningfully intertwined in his long search for ‘Joy’, and the repeated importance as a theme throughout his life: (a) his dialectic approach as lecturer that bred in his pupils a sense of logical argumentation; (b) his accessibility as a voice for the defence of the faith, where his speeches and broadcasts as apologetic spoke to the rattled belief of the common man; and (c) his work as writer, which emphasised truths through the lens and perspectives adopted in his own life.

However, meaning is not always easy to create. Particularly when it comes to crisis. Erikson (1963, 1968) has pointed out that in identity crisis, the individual usually tries to consolidate parts of the identity or of the self which do not fit together or which seem to be disparate. In a crisis, the individual strives to bring these identity parts together, thereby trying to meaningfully contribute to the individual’s value system. Meaning, according to Erikson (1968) is then created by bringing the continuous experiences of the past, the present and the future together. Thereby meaning is created by synergetically integrating the identifications of the past, the aptitudes and capacities of the present and the dreams and aims to be achieved in the future (Erikson, 1968).

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In many socio-cultural contexts, meaning is created to make sense of social existence and psychobiographical studies often explore the meaningfulness of life events (Stanley, 1992) in extraordinary individuals. Here, the individuals become the creator of meaning within their socio-­ cultural environment. Psychobiographies often show the meaning of his/her meaningful impact not only throughout the life time and across the life span, but far beyond that. Extraordinary individuals often strive for meaningful contributions during their lifetime, but also want to ensure a lasting and deeper impact beyond the end of their natural life (Oosthuizen, 2018). Thereby, psychobiographies explore the inner worlds of individuals to discover their ideas about inner meaning (Mayer, 2017) or even inner symbolic archetypal patterns and the creation of meaning throughout their life (Mayer, 2020). One specific area which has been researched in psychobiography and from which individuals derive a lot of meaning, is their work (Osorio, 2016; Pearson et al., 2016). Thereby, meaning and how it is constructed is strongly influenced by intersectionalities, such as gender, cultural background, ability, educational background and race (Mayer et al., 2015). Work and careers—as meaning making constructs in psychobiography— have become a source of exploration and research during the past years (Fouché, 2015; du Plessis, 2016; Ponterotto & Park-Taylor, 2019; Mayer, 2019; Wegner, 2020a). Several studies have shown that work and career development often play an important role in meaning-making in adult life in extraordinary individuals. Meaning-making through work—and often creative work—has been highlighted as strong aspect of meaning-­ making and part of extraordinary identity creation, such as in artists, actors or creative entrepreneurs (Isaacson, 2011; Kováry, 2011; Ndoro & van Niekerk, 2019). In the following, we will take a closer look at identity and its development through the lifespan from a psychobiographical point of view. I seem to have run in a great circle, and met myself again on the starting line. —Jeanette Winterson, UK writer, born 1959

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7

Identity and its Development Throughout the Life Span

Identity as a psychobiographical research topic has been included repeatedly in recent research studies (Elms, 1994; Franz & Stewart, 1994; McAdams, 1985, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999; McRunyan, 1997). Thereby, many psychobiographers have used the lens of Erikson (1950, 1963, 1978, 1980) to explore identity development in extraordinary individuals, such as Muller and Stroud (2014) who has explored identity formation and its role in development in the life of the artist Jackson Pollock. The authors focus in particular on identity formation and its healthy development. Latilla and Kramer (2018), focus on Kiedis’ identity development. He was the singer of the band the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Further, Osorio (2016) focused on identity formation in John Lennon, while Hoque (2018) explored the identity development of Amy Winehouse. Post (2013) argued that the exploration of identity in the context of the life circle is crucial when it comes to understanding leader and leadership. The author argues that leaders, when they come into power, need to be understood in the context of their own significant relationships and life shaping events. Only then, their life at different points of the life circle can be understood contextually and in particular with regard to their political identity, since leadership behaviour—he could show by exploring various political world leader—are often influenced by impactful childhood experiences. Falk (1985) has already during the 1980’s pointed out that political psychobiography needs to take the identity of politicians into consideration and particularly focus on aspects of identification and projections. Narrative analysis has been pointed out not only to be a fruitful way of doing research, but also a fruitful way of constructing identity (Singer, 2004; Ponterotto et al., 2015). While exploring the life and the identity and its development in extraordinary individuals can be useful for the readers of those psychobiographies to reflect on their own life and their own identity constructions, formations and developments, lecturers can also use psychobiographies at university level to anchor the students in their professional identity (Ponterotto, 2017). Already early psychobiographies have shown that identity construction happens between the

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researcher and the researched in terms of identity formation and construction processes which include processes of identification (Elms, 1988). Elms (1988), for example, emphasizes that Freud, while writing about Leonardo da Vinci, identified strongly with his life, (re-)constructing his own life in the context of the narration on Leonardo’s life. For psychobiographical research, however, it is important that identity processes of the researcher and the researched are clearly distinguished and not projected or mixed in terms of identity identifications. Besides the (re-)construction of professional identity, identities are also shaped by and influence cultural identity aspects (Mayer, 2005; Ponterotto et al., 2015; Mayer & Wolting, 2016; Mayer & Mayer, 2020). However, little research has been done so far on the creation of transcultural identities during the life course (Mayer, 2015, 2016) and there is a strong need to navigate transcultural identity development to create holistic and integrated identities of individuals who live their lives across cultural contexts (Mayer, 2021b). It has been pointed out that more research in psychobiography should focus on culture and identity (Mayer, 2017) and Wegner (2021 in this book) emphasizes that psychobiography needs to take intersectionalities of identity parts more into consideration for psychobiographies to add to social justice, but also, as emphasized in Mayer (2020) to become more holistic and balanced while taking m ­ arginalized identities and cultures increasingly into consideration as research objects and therefore as examples of learning. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. —Steve Jobs, Entrepreneur, 1955–2011

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 eaning-making, Identity Development M and the Content and Contribution of this Book

By focusing on meaning-making and identity development from a psychobiographical perspective, this book will not only focus on the extraordinary individuals and their life course development. This volume creates

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an emphasis by defining the extraordinary individual within the socio-­ cultural, political, cultural groundedness of psychobiography. It thereby draws the line between the individual and the socio-cultural surrounding, strengthening the link of psychobiography as an accepted case-study methodology and research design which does not only focus on the person, but rather on the person as a socio-cultural being. The psychobiographies in this volume interconnect and explore the interlinkages of psychobiographies using psycho-historical and cultural methods in combination with psychological developmental life-course theory. This common “thread” integrates it all. The editors and authors of this volume will emphasise the writing of chapters to focus more pertinently on socio-historical and cultural forces and incidents that interacted to influence the psychological life-course development of the subject under study and vice versa. Often, this interlinkage has been highlighted in psychobiographical research, however rather rarely has it been executed in research. Psychobiography in this book will thereby be defined as an accepted research methodology which combines and uses individual and personal psychology in interrelation with historiographic and socio-cultural methods and contexts to ­understand human development as a combination of individual life course and life span development and socio-cultural and historic interaction. In this book the editors have included altogether 16 chapters written by authors from multicultural and multidisciplinary backgrounds. The volume includes authors from Hungary, Greece, Poland, the United States, Germany, South Africa and Ireland. In the following, the chapter content will be presented briefly to provide an overview on the content of the book. Dan McAdams, as one of the famous and very well-known psychobiographical authors from the United States provides his impressions on the book in a preface. In Chap. 1, Claude-Hélène Mayer, Paul, J.P.  Fouché and Roelf van Niekerk introduce the topic of psychobiographical illustrations on meaning and identity in sociocultural contexts. This chapter provides insights into the volume’s core topic, namely to psychobiographical illustrations on meaning-making and identity development in sociocultural contexts. It provides a brief insight of the state-of-the-art, defines the aim of the

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book and provides the reader with orientation and guidance with regard to the book’s content. The two authors, Zoltan Kovary and Asztrik Kovacs, present in Chap. 2 the psychological effects of psychobiographical research on the researcher’s personality. In historical and contemporary perspective, the authors show how the engagement of individuals with the life of extraordinary individuals contributes to positive psychological effect and professional skills, but also on personality development. The chapter presents empirical findings from a study conducted by the authors. New insights into the meaning/making and identity development in the context of psychobiographical research and investigations are given. The well-known author Amadeusz Citlak presents his psychobiographical work in Chap. 3. He asks the question: “The oldest psychobiography in the world? The author writes about two psychobiographies that have been written in Warsaw, Poland: one on Socrates, which dates to 1909, and the other on Jesus of Nazareth from 1941, published in 1958. These two psychobiographies were not translated into German or English and thus remained unknown in world literature. Both psychobiographies were written by Władysław Witwicki. Citlak presents findings on Socrates with special regard to Socrates’ sense of meaning and purpose in life which are closely linked to the values set by the Greek culture. The authors puts the psychobiography into the context of the psychological tradition of Twardowski’s school as a counterbalance to the psychoanalytic tradition and biography of Leonardo DaVinci by S. Freud written in 1910. This chapter thereby contributes greatly to the development and advancement of the theoretical traditions of psychobiography. The authors Ulrich Sollmann and Claude-Hélène Mayer explore new ways of psychobiography in Chap. 4 in which they explore the interplay of personality, non-verbal communication and body-language to analyse the meaning of specific life events in the life of Angela Merkel, the contemporary German chancellor. In their chapter, they evaluate how Merkel uses non-verbal communication and body-language to establish herself as a meaningful chancellor over the years of her career. The chapter promises new theoretical approaches in the psychobiography of meaning-­making. In Chap. 5, A comparative psychobiographical exploration of meaning-­making in the development of generativity in the lives of women

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in the anti-apartheid movement is presented by the authors Barbara Burnell and Carla Nel who use a multidimensional and dynamic holistic wellness approach to explore the process of meaning making as the individual interacts with life forces and global events. Further, Erikson’s developmental concept of psychosocial generativity, provides another framework through which the creation of a meaningful life during middle adulthood can be explored. The authors highlight the differences and similarities in the selected womens’ achievement of meaning against the background of their shared as well as differing contextual and personal factors. This article also aims to address a frequent criticism against the psychobiographical approach, namely the lack of subject diversity. “I as photographer” is the major theme in Chap. 6 in which Athena Androutsopoulou, Charikleia Tsatsaroni, Georgia Koutsavgousti, and Kia Thanopoulou explore the life of the street photographer Vivian Maier (1926–2009) who was a lonely person of Austrian-French origin, who made a living as a nanny in the USA. Chapter 6 is based on the theory of the narrative construction of self, and following principles of visual-­ narrative analysis. The authors discuss the findings with emphasis placed in the many forms of repeated self-portrayal as meaning making, but also in the limitations of making meaning of the self in solitude. Finally, the chapter provides insight in therapy implications linking psychobiography research with clinical practice. Chapter 7 is the chapter of Ágnes Bálint, who writes about “Variables of a life’s equation. Contribution to Zoltan Paul Dienes’ psychobiography“. Dienes is introduced as a Hungarian-born mathematician, a psychologist as well as a tireless world-traveler. The chapter describes the extraordinary life of Dienes and investigates how all the unique early life experiences of Dienes contributed to his relatively lately found mission, namely his theory of learning and teaching mathematics. Bálint aims at understanding how the socio-cultural context contributed to Dienes’ adult life and his mathematical theory. The author thereby touches on concepts of identity and meaning in Dienes life and contributes greatly to the exploration of identity development in changing social and contextual surroundings. Chapter 8 explores life and meaning making in Karl Lagerfeld, one of the global fashion icons. The authors, Claude-Hélène Mayer and James

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L. Kelley, explore shame from an existential positive psychology perspective in the life of this extraordinary individual and show how a specific experience and management of shame contributed to Lagerfeld’s meaning-­making and identity development. Thereby, the socio-cultural Bildung, implemented by his mother, contributed to his personal development of meaning-making throughout Lagerfeld’s life of designing fashion. Rosalyn Shute writes in Chap. 9 about Harold ‘Kim’ Philby who was a British M16 intelligence officer who became infamous for acting as a double agent for the Soviet Union during the Second World War and the early Cold War period. In the chapter: “Was British Cold War Spy and Double Agent Kim Philby a Successful Psychopath? A Psychobiographical Analysis” the author applies psychological science, to assess whether Philby could be considered psychopathic and, if so, whether his developmental history can shed light on how this might have come about. This outstanding chapter adds to the discourse about the little-understood aetiology of psychopathy and supports the suggestion that espionage is a field in which psychopaths who are not antisocial or impulsive can achieve success. Virág Rab contributes in Chap. 10 a highly important psychobiography of the Hungarian politician, economist, and belletrist Loránt Hegedüs. The author presents how Hegedüs was socialized before WWI and how he suffered through political changes, creating meaning through his political engagement within the society. Rab aims at understanding Hegedüs meaning-making by applying Levinson’s psychosocial developmental theory and McAdams’ model of generativity in the socio-cultural and historical context. A highly interesting chapter which contributes to new knowledge making in psychobiographical works of Eastern European extraordinary individuals. Chapter 11, a psychobiography written about Charles Baudelaire, is presented by James L. Kelley and touches on the poet and critic’s meaning making across the life span. This study makes use of psychobiographical methods to examine the subject’s developmental challenges, from his futile childhood struggle to meet his parents’ expectations, to his later bouts with writers’ block and depression, both brought on in part by substance abuse. The study concludes that, though Baudelaire made

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many efforts to manage his disturbed moods, he was never able to rise above the stunted object relations established during his childhood, which led to his self-destructive way of life. In Chap. 12, the authors Roelf van Niekerk, Claude-Hélène Mayer and Paul, J.P. Fouché explore the life and identity of Henri Nouwen, a charismatic Roman Catholic priest, psychologist, academic, gifted public speaker and spiritual guide who transcended denominational barriers and who created meaning and identity across denominations, working across faith traditions. The authors explore Nouwens’ extensive written accounts in journals, articles and books which have sold in multiple languages, 8 million times globally. The chapter presents Nouwens’ identity struggles and his search for meaning through relentless writing, travelling, ministry, public speaking, supporting and guiding others. The author Robert Mullen presents new insights into dealing with “the ordinary” in psychobiography. In Chap. 13 of this Volume, Mullen explores character strengths and virtues in individuals across the life time, arguing that the ordinary individual should be included in ­psychobiographical research, thereby contributing to deeper explorations of identity and meaning-making throughout lifespan research. This following chapter, Chap. 14, demonstrates the use of analytical tools for conducting psychobiography from a socio-cultural perspective. The author, Benjamin Wegner, leads a discourse about the role psychobiography, intersectionality, the ADDRESSING model and cultural humility. The chapter further employs the personality theory of Alfred Adler (1870–1937) to analyze the Early Recollections (ERs) of the sociologist, philosopher, and activist, W.E.B.  Du Bois (1868–1963). The author requests psychobiography and psychobiographers to wake up and commit themself to social justice to pursue truth and justice. The meaning-­ making as the intersectional lens, are sound and rooted in the subjective experience of an extraordinary individual. Finally, Chap. 15, focuses on discursive psychological analysis of autobiographical reminiscence in older Irish adults. The chapter, written by Andrew P.  Allen, Caoilainn Doyle, Caragh Marie Doyle, Cormac Monaghan, Noel Fitzpatrick, and Richard A.P. Roche analyses reminiscence discussions between four older Irish adults with two of the authors. The chapter presents the function of maintaining a sense of self, as

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changes in sense of self are described across different life periods within participants’ autobiographical memories. Reminiscence segued between first person, interpersonal and broader societal accounts, and employed counterfactual scenarios as well as direct descriptions of memory. This chapter presents new views on psychobiographical accounts in the context of sense of self and meaning/making across the life span and in socio-­ cultural contexts. Finally, the editors of this book Claude-Hélène Mayer, Paul, J.P. Fouché and Roelf van Niekerk present a brief Epilog in which they discuss possible ways forward for psychobiography and present recommendations for future research and practice in psychobiography with focus on meaning-­ making and identity development across the lifecourse in sociocultural contexts. We wish all the readers joy in reading this book, new inspirations, stimulating thoughts and insights through the eyes of the extraordinary (and ordinary) individuals and the scholars who have contributed to this volume. We hope that the discourses on identity development and meaning-­ making throughout the life time and across various socio-­ cultural contexts may provide new ideas to creating meaningful and extraordinary lives and to become “citizen of the world”.

References Allen, A. P., Doyle, C., Doyle, C. M., Monaghan, C., Fitzpatrick, N., & Roche, R. A. P. (2021). What we talk about when we talk about the past: Discursive psychological analysis of autobiographical reminiscence in older Irish adults. In C.-H. Mayer, J. P. Fouché, & R. van Niekerk (Eds.), Psychobiographical illustrations on meaning and identity in sociocultural contexts (pp. xxx–xxx). Palgrave Macmillan. Attig, T. (1996). How we grieve: Relearning the world. Oxford University Press. Du Plessis, R. (2016). The life of Steve Jobs: A psychobiographical study (Unpublished master’s dissertation). University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa. Elms, A. (1988). Freud as Leonardo: Why the first psychobiography went wrong. Journal of Personality, 56(1), 19–40. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-­ 6494.1988.tb00461.x

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Elms, A. C. (1994). Uncovering lives: The uneasy alliance of biography and psychology. Oxford University Press. Erikson, E. H. (1950). Childhood and society. Norton. Erikson, E. H. (1963). Childhood and society (2nd ed.). Norton. Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. Norton. Erikson, E. H. (1978). Adulthood. Norton. Erikson, E. H. (1980). Identity and the life cycle. Norton. Falk, A. (1985). Aspects of political psychobiography. Political Psychology, 6(4), 605. https://doi.org/10.2307/3791019 Fouché, J.  P. (2015). The coming of age of South African psychobiography: Introduction to the special issue. Journal of Psychology in Africa, 25(5), 375–378. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2015.1101261 Fouché, J. P., Burnell, B., & van Niekerk, R. (2015). The spiritual wellness of Beyers Naudé: A psychobiographical study of a South African anti-apartheid theologian. Journal of Psychology in Africa, 25(5), 429–437. https://doi.org/1 0.1080/14330237.2015.1101264 Fouché, J.  P., Nortjé, N., Welman, C., & van Niekerk, R. (2018). Emily Hobhouse’s psychosocial developmental trajectory as anti-war campaigner: A Levinsonian psychobiography. Indo Pacific Journal of Phenomenology, 18(1), 81–95. https://doi.org/10.1080/20797222.2018.1511308 Fouché, J. P., & van Niekerk, R. (2010). Academic psychobiography in South Africa: Past, present and future. South African Journal of Psychology, 40(4), 495–507. Fouché, P., Burnell, B., van Niekerk, R., & Nortjé, N. (2016). The faith development of anti-apartheid theologian Beyers Naudé: A psychobiography. Spirituality in Clinical Practice. https://doi.org/10.1037/scp0000105 Frankl, V. E. (1959). Man’s search for meaning. Beacon Press. Franz, C., & Stewart, A. (Eds.). (1994). Women creating lives: Identities, resilience, and resistance. Westview Press. Hendricks, S. (2018, February 19). 5 American philosophers on the meaning of life. Big Think. https://bigthink.com/scotty-­hendricks/five-­american-­philoso phers-­and-­their-­ideas-­on-­the-­meaning-­of-­life Hoque, A. (2018). The life of Amy Jade Winehouse: A psychobiography (Unpublished master’s thesis). University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa. http://hdl.handle.net/10210/294803 Isaacson, W. (2011). Steve Jobs. Simon & Schuster. Kováry, Z. (2011). Psychobiography as a method. The revival of studying lives: New perspectives in personality and creativity research. Europe’s Journal of Psychology, 7, 739–777.

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Latilla, T., & Kramer, S. (2018). Kiedis’s scar tissue: A phenomenological psychobiography. Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology, 18. https://doi.org/1 0.1080/20797222.2018.1511309 Martsin, M. (2019). Identity development in the life course. Sociocultural psychology of the life course. Palgrave Macmillan. Mayer, C.-H. (2005). Mauern aus Glas. Südafrikanische Narrationen zu Differenz, Konflikt und Identität. Waxmann. Mayer, C.-H. (2008). Managing conflict across cultures, values and identities. A case study in the South African automotive industry. Wissenschaftliche Beiträge aus dem Tectum Verlag, Reihe: Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Band 20. Tectum Verlag. Mayer, C.-H. (2015). Travelling inner landscapes: A longitudinal study on transcultural identity development. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 34(4), 272–292. https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-­08-­2012-­0072 Mayer, C.-H. (2016). Nature child and big soul—Meditations at Ayers Rock. In C.-H. Mayer & S. Wolting (Hrsg.), Purple Jacaranda. Narrations on transcultural identity development (pp. 50–58). Waxmann. Mayer, C.-H. (2017). The life and creative works of Paulo Coelho. A psychobiography from a positive psychology perspective. Springer. Mayer, C.-H. (2019). An early calling, a late career: Psychobiographic investigations into Paulo Coelho’s career development. In C.-H. Mayer & Z. Kovary (Eds.), New trends in psychobiography (pp. 245–264). Springer. Mayer, C.-H. (2020). The success and failures of Michael Jackson. A psychobiogaraphy through the lens of the trickster archetype. In E. Vanderheiden & C.-H.  Mayer (Eds.), Mistakes, errors and failures across cultures: Navigating potentials (pp. 435–453). Springer. Mayer, C.-H. (2021a). Albert Camus—A psychobiographical approach in times of Covid-19. Frontiers in Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.644579 Mayer, C.-H. (2021b). Navigating Contact Zones in 21st Century Schools: Creative Identity Development in Two Complex Transcultural Spaces. Journal of Intercultural Communication, 5521(1), 19–33. Mayer, C.-H., & Kovary, Z. (2019). New trends in psychobiography. Springer. Mayer, C.-H., & Mayer, L.  J. (2020). On being “outside the box” or being “inside”: Intercultural communication, relationship-building and identity ascription failures. In E.  Vanderheiden & C.-H.  Mayer (Eds.), Mistakes, errors and failures across cultures: Navigating potentials (pp. 163–181). Springer. Mayer, C.-H., Surtee, S., & May, M. (2015). The meaning of work for a diverse group of women working in higher education institutions. South African Journal of Higher Education, 29(6), 182–205.

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Mayer, C.-H., & Wolting, S. (2016). Purple Jacaranda. Narrations on transcultural identity development. Waxmann. McAdams, D. P. (1985). Power, intimacy, and the life story: Personological inquiries into identity. Guilford Press. McAdams, D. P. (1993). The stories we live by: Personal myths and the making of the self. Morrow. McAdams, D. P. (1995). What do we know when we know a person? Journal of Personality, 63, 365–396. McAdams, D. P. (1996). Personality, modernity, and the storied self: A contemporary framework for studying persons. Psychological Inquiry, 7, 295–321. McAdams, D. P. (1997). The case for unity in the (post)modern self: A modest proposal. In R. Ashmore & L. Jussim (Eds.), Self and identity: Fundamental issues (pp. 46–78). Oxford University Press. McAdams, D. P. (1999). Personal narratives and the life story. In L. Pervin & O.  John (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (2nd ed., pp. 478–500). Guilford Press. McRunyan, W. M. (1997). Studying lives: Psychobiography and the conceptual structure of personality psychology. In R. Hogan, J. Johnson, et al. (Eds.), Handbook of personality psychology (pp. 41–69). Academic. Mullen, R. F. (2019). Abstractions of intent: How a psychobiography grapples with the fluidity of truth. In C.-H. Mayer & Z. Kovary (Eds.), New trends in psychobiography (pp. 79–95). Springer. Mullen, R. F. (2021). Broadening the parameters of the psychobiography. The character motivations of the ‘ordinary’ extraordinary. In C.-H.  Mayer, P.  J. Fouché, & R. van Niekerk (Eds.), Psychobiographical illustrations on meaning and identity in sociocultural contexts (pp. xxx–xxx). Palgrave Macmillan. Muller, T., & Stroud, L. (2014). Identity formation and its role in optimal human development: A psychobiographical study of artist Jackson Pollock. New Voices in Psychology, 10(1), 3–15. https://doi.org/10.2515 9/1812-­6371/3410 Ndoro, T., & van Niekerk, R. (2019). A psychobiographical analysis of the personality traits of Steve Jobs’s entrepreneurial life. Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology, 19(1), 29–39. Oosthuizen, G. H. (2018). Clive Staple Lewis: A psychobiography (Masters dissertation). Psychology, UFS, Bloemfontein. Osorio, D. (2016). John Lennon: A psychobiography (Unpublished master’s thesis in Psychology). Department of Psychology at the Faculty of the Humanities, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein.

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Pearson, K., May, M.  S., & Mayer, C.-H. (2016). The meaning of work for South African women: A phenomenological study. Journal of Psychology in Africa, 26(2), 134–140. Pillemer, D.  B. (1998). Momentous events, vivid memories. Harvard University Press. Ponterotto, J.  G. (2017). Integrating psychobiography into professional psychology training: Rationale, benefits, and models. Training and Education in Professional Psychology, 11(4), 290–296. https://doi.org/10.1037/tep0000176 Ponterotto, J. G., & Park-Taylor, J. (2019). Careerography: Application of psychobiography to career development. Journal of Career Development, 48(1), 089484531986742. Ponterotto, J. G., Reynolds, J., Morel, S., & Cheung, L. (2015). Psychobiography training in psychology in North America: Mapping the field and charting a course. European Journal of Psychology, 11(3), 459–475. Post, J.  M. (2013). Psychobiography: “The child is father of the man”. In L. Huddy, D. O. Sears, & J. S. Levy (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of political psychology (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfor dhb/9780199760107.013.0015. https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/ view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199760107.001.0001/oxfordhb-­9780199 760107-­e-­015 Schnell, T., & Krampe, H. (2020). Meaning in life and self-control buffer stress in times of COVID-19: Moderating and mediating effects with regard to mental distress. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/ fpsyt.2020.582352 Schultz, W. T. (2005). Introduction. In W. T. Schultz (Ed.), Handbook of psychobiography (pp. 3–18). Oxford University Press. Singer, J. A. (2004). Narrative identity and meaning making across the adult lifespan: An introduction. Journal of Personality, 72(3), 437–459. Singer, J. A., & Bluck, S. (2001). New perspectives on autobiographical memory: The integration of narrative processing and autobiographical reasoning. Review of General Psychology, 5, 91–99. Stanley, L. (1992). The autobiographical I: The theory and practice of feminist auto/ biography. Manchester University Press. van Tongeren, D. R., & Showalter van Tongeren, S. A. (2020). The courage to suffer. A new clinical framework for life’s greatest crises. Templeton Press. Wegner, B. (2021 in this book). Wake up, psychobiography! Above and beyond the veil with W.E.B. Du Bois. In C.-H. Mayer, J.P. Fouché, & R. van Niekerk (Eds.), Psychobiographical illustrations on meaning and identity in sociocultural contexts (pp. xxx–xxx). Palgrave Macmillan.

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Wegner, B. R. (2020a). A psychobiography of Philip Brinkman: The life, work, and human concerns of a social psychologist (Doctoral dissertation). Faculty of Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Chicago, IL. Wegner, B.  R. (2020b). Psychobiography is trending among psychologists. Review of Claude-Hélène Mayer & Zoltan Kovary, eds., New trends in psychobiography (Springer Nature Switzerland AG: Springer International Publishing, 2019), Clio’s Psyche, 140–143. Yalom, I. D. (1980). Existential psychotherapy. Basic Books. Zaretsky, R. (2013). A life worth living: Albert camus and the quest for meaning. Belknap Press. https://doi.org/10.7591/9780801460296 Zittoun, T. (2019). Sociocultural psychology of a lifecourse. Palgrave Macmillan.

2 Discovering the “I” in the “THOU”. The Psychological Effects of Psychobiographical Research on The Personality of The Researcher Zoltán Kőváry and Asztrik Kovács

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Introduction

In our chapter we would like to evince that the process of psychobiographical research has a great influence on the researcher’s creativity and personality development. Historical cases provide psychobiographical evidence for this assumption. For example Friedrich Nietzsche’s lifelong obsession with composer Richard Wagner, Sigmund Freud’s Leonardo essay, Henry A. Murray’s encounter with Herman Melville’s work, or Leopold Szondi’s Dostoevsky influence all suggest, that one of the greatest psychobiographers of the 20th century, Erik H. Erikson was right. In his “Young Man Luther” (1958) Erikson stated, that when a clinician (~ psychologist) is dealing with a biographical case, they will soon find out that the “imaginary client” has also been dealing with them. That suggests that knowing the Other cannot be separated from knowing myself; these phenomena influence each other, so the analysis of the Other sooner

Z. Kőváry (*) • A. Kovács Eötvös Lorád University, Budapest, Hungary © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 C.-H. Mayer et al. (eds.), Psychobiographical Illustrations on Meaning and Identity in Sociocultural Contexts, Sociocultural Psychology of the Lifecourse, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81238-6_2

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or later turns into a virtual “mutual analysis” (Ferenczi, 1988/1932). Apart from the fact that this is a highly important hermeneutical insight concerning psychobiography and qualitative personality research in general, it has significance in higher education and in the training of psychologists. Fortunately, some universities worldwide support students’ psychobiographical research during university years, and our conviction is that the beneficial psychological effects influence not only professional skills but improve the self-knowledge of psychology students as well. Selfknowledge is relevant in the process of becoming a psychologist, as the therapist’s personality is one of the most important factors of successful psychological interventions (Rogers, 1965; Duncan, 2002). In this article—after defining our subject—we firstly present three historical cases that shed light on this phenomenon. These cases are of the existentialist philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche; the father of psychoanalysis and psychobiography, Sigmund Freud; and, the creator of “fate analysis” and the discoverer of the “family unconscious”, Hungarian psychiatrist Leopold Szondi. Following this we outline a theory concerning the dynamics of personality transformation during psychobiography research, based on Norman Holland’s (1976) ideas. In the third part, we focus on the question that conducting a psychobiographical research can support psychology students’ intellectual and personality development during university education. Related to this, we present a qualitative empirical research project of our own. This research tries to unfold, how psychobiographical courses influence and shape students’ personalities and professional skills and identity following the courses. Written interviews with open-ended questions were used as data, and the texts were analyzed with the use of inductive thematic analysis (Terry, Hayfield, Clarke & Braun, 2017). The participants of the study were psychologists, PhD and former MA psychology students from Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary, who had conducted psychobiographical research previously during the course. The results help us to understand how psychology students make sense of their research experiences, and how psychobiographical courses deeply influence the personal and professional development and identity-forming of future psychologists.

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“Discovering the “I” in the THOU”

Psychobiography is an idiographic, qualitative, contextualist psychological research method. It follows the strategy of discovery, based on phenomenological-­hermeneutic traditions and narrative construction of reality. By using it, the researchers are trying to unfold the relations between eminent person’s creative activity, personality dynamics and their (inner) life history (Kőváry, 2011, 2019). The official initiator of this method was Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), the creator of psychoanalysis. However, it is remarkable that some decades before he published “Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of His Childhood” (Freud, 1957/1910), the “founding text” of psychobiography, German philosopher and psychologist Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1911) developed “methodological hermeneutics” which is, in principle, parallel with Freudian psychobiography1 Dilthey (1989/1883) emphasized, that human sciences (Geisteswissenschaften) are different from natural sciences in their subject and approach, so therefore they need their own different methodology. Dilthey identified this method as “descriptive psychology”. The aim of its usage is not to causally explain but to understand (Verstehen), what kind of psychological experiences (Erlebnis) inspired the birth of particular creative products identified as personal human expressions. Dilthey (1996/1900, 237) called these expressions “fixed and relatively permanent objectifications of life” (fixierte Lebensäußerungen). According to him this category contains every kind of intentional human act from the cry of a baby to “Hamlet”. According to Dilthey, this “understanding” is about reconstructing the influencing psychological experiences (with the use of empathy and intuition) in order to recognize the author’s intentions—even better than the authors themselves did. To achieve this, says Dilthey, we have to investigate the whole person’s psychological life (and not only isolated functions like cognition) in biographical context (Dilthey, 1989/1883). In our opinion this is literally psychobiography! It is important to note  It is notable, that psychiatrist and existential philosopher Karl Japers (1883-1969) after adapting Dilthey’s (and Husserl’s) approach as Verstehende Psychologie in psychopathological research, stated that with this he explicitly elaborated the methods that Freud de facto had been using (Jaspers, 1998/1977). 1

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that, later in his life Dilthey changed descriptive psychology to hermeneutics, because he realized that human psychological life and its “structures” cannot be investigated directly, but only indirectly by the systematic interpretation of fixed objectifications of life, especially texts2. Interpretation is beyond rational processes; in order to understand the relationship between different expressions of lived experiences in a case, we have to “lose ourselves” in a “strange life”, and understanding comes into view when we discover “the I in the Thou” (Dilthey, 1990). This was the very first time in modern intellectual history, where a philosopher/ psychologist stated that the understanding of other people, via their expressions of life, does not exist without self-knowledge. Dilthey discovered the importance of self-knowledge in the hermeneutic process, but he did not reflect on the other side: how understanding of other persons supports, in turn, our self-knowledge. After Dilthey’s death this methodological approach to hermeneutics (that was criticized as “psychologism” by philosophers) was rejected for a long time. Martin Heidegger (1962/1927) and his disciple, Hans-Georg Gadamer (1975/1960) “de-psychologized” hermeneutics, whilst, in parallel, post-­ structuralist literary critics and philosophers began to talk about “the death of the author” (Eagleton, 1996). So psychological aspects concerning the author were banished form interpretations. Personality psychology and creativity research were similarly “depersonalized” at the same time, as researchers rather focused on decontextualized constructs, traits and their correlations with different variables (McAdams, 1997). The “methodological” or “psychologized” version of hermeneutics returned only with the works of Paul Ricoeur (1981), who was deeply interested in psychoanalysis and the psychobiographical approach also returned to psychology at the same time (Stolorow & Atwood, 1979). Ricoeur discovered the other side of hermeneutical dialogue in the process of interpretation. Understanding is not only “discovering the I in the Thou”, as Dilthey said, but in order to create ourselves psychologically we are constantly identifying ourselves with our “heroes” via reading and  Psychological phenomena often can be identified as „texts”. For example in a dynamic therapy the therapist is not analyzing the patient’s dream directly, but the her/his verbal reports (Ricoeur, 1981). That is why the psychologist’s activity is very close to text interpretations, hermeneutics. 2

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understanding texts. As Ricoeur emphasizes, constructing our identity always overlaps with identifications with Others. Thus only the construction of the self via the mediation of the Other can be an authentic way to self-­exploration (Ricoeur, 2001). We are convinced that this “mutual analysis”, that unfolds during the process of psychobiographical research, is extremely beneficial for psychologists and psychology students. We try to present this firstly with the use of psychobiography itself, and then by presenting our qualitative research.

3

Three Historical Cases

3.1

Friedrich Nietzsche

Although Nietzsche was not an “official” psychologist, in his writings he often referred to himself as a “moral psychologist”. He is frequently compared with Freud (Assoun, 2006, Lohmann, 2008), and his psychological qualities were acknowledged by several authors, including Thomas Mann, Otto Rank, Carl Gustav Jung and Rollo May. The latter (May, 1983) linked him not only to psychoanalysis, but to existential psychology as well. Besides being one of the most influential philosophers of modernism, Nietzsche intuitively discovered the idea behind psychobiography around the same time that Dilthey identified “descriptive psychology” as a method for the human sciences. In “Beyond Good and Evil” Nietzsche wrote the following: “It has gradually become clear to me what every great philosophy up till now has consisted of—namely, the confession of its originator, and a species of involuntary and unconscious auto-­ biography” (Nietzsche, 2004/1886, 10). As a philosopher he was not an exception—his writings are passionate, personal, self-reflective, and massively feature a life-historical aspect that influenced him more deeply than almost anything else in his conscious existence. This aspect is his relation to composer Richard Wagner and Wagnerian music which affected deeply him from the beginning, even after their “breakup” in 1876. According to contemporary psychobiography (Isaacson, 2005) we have to say that Wagner, as a co-player, turned to a counter-player in

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Nietzsche’s life, but remained an important a self-object (Kohut, 1977) who helps to maintain the balance of the personality. Nietzsche was a shy, withdrawn, valetudinary but art-loving and brilliant minded young man—he became a professor of classical philology at the age of 25 (Frenzel, 1993). He had a decisive encounter with two giants of 19th century German culture in the 1860s: Richard Wagner and philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (Safranski, 2000). Wagner was also a follower of Schopenhauer, a philosopher who held music above all else, so it was an important connection point between him and Nietzsche. Wagner was born in the same year as Nietzsche’s beloved father, a pastor, who died when Nietzsche was four; this loss had traumatic psychological effects on him (Arnold & Atwood, 2005). From the middle of the 1860s Nietzsche became acquainted with Schopenhauer’s dark, pessimistic but consolatory philosophy3, Wagner’s overwhelming, Schopenhauerian music—and Wagner himself. Nietzsche became the composer’s nearest “employee”, a kind of a secretary; in these years (1868~1876) the philosopher dedicated his entire talent to “promoting” Wagner and Schopenhauer, especially in his early philosophical works (“The Birth of Tragedy”, 1872; “Untimely Meditations”, 1873-1876—one of the “Meditations” was about Wagner, another was about Schopenhauer, see Safranski, 2000). Mostly because of Wagner’s tyrannical personality, tension began to grow between them, the philosopher displayed psychosomatic manifestations (usually the sign of intrapsychic conflict between dependency and anger), and finally he chose himself and independence. The apropos of the breakup was Wagner’s final musical drama, “Parsifal”, a Christian themed work, that Nietzsche couldn’t stand (Frenzel, 1993). Following this, until his mental breakdown (1889), Nietzsche was mostly a lone and restless wanderer, suffering from different illnesses (Safranski, 2000). From a psychological point of view the satisfying “symbiosis” with Wagner ended with a painful “separation” (Mahler, 1974) or a symbolic birth-trauma (Rank, 1999/1924-1931) that forced Nietzsche to find his authentic, independent self. After experiencing this “paradise lost”, in the next period (1876-1883)— which refers to a new beginning, a “rebirth”—sometimes called the  See Irvin D. Yalom’s popular book, „The Schopenhauer Cure: a novel” (2005).

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“philosophy of the morning”, in his books (“Human All Too Human”, 1878-1880; “Daybreak”, 1881; “The Gay Science”, 1882), Nietzsche began to reconstruct himself intellectually as a “free spirit”, which at least partly meant “free from Wagner”. The last active period (1883-1888) began with another emotional trauma: Nietzsche wanted to marry Lou Salome, who betrayed him (Frenzel, 1993). In this phase, Nietzsche wrote his most important books (“Thus Spoke Zarathustra”, 1883-1885; “Beyond Good and Evil”, 1886; “On the Genealogy of Morals”, 1887), while in the last year 1888, he created several shorter, and more provocative works. These are intellectually brilliant and influential texts (“The Antichrist”, “Ecce Homo”, “The Twilight of the Idols”, “The Case of Wagner” and “Nietzsche Contra Wagner”), but show some subtle signs of psychological disintegration. The last two contain a direct reference to Wagner, while the German title of “Twilight of the Idols”, “Götzendämmerung” refers to Wagner’s “Götterdämmerung” (“Twilight of the Gods”) (Frenzel, 1993). It seems that ten years after the breakup, Nietzsche was still obsessed with this overwhelming influence, and with the use of his psychological philosophy (according to him a “confession of its originator, and a species of involuntary and unconscious auto-­ biography”) desperately intended to understand the Wagner-phenomenon and the nature of his obsession, which, at least partly, was against his own wish (Kőváry, 2016). “Wagner is a neurosis”—claimed Nietzsche in “The Case of Wagner” (2005/1888, 242), a magnetiseur, who showed us how to hypnotize with music; this all suggests that writer Romain Rolland (1931) was right when he referred to the “musical unconscious”4. Without this neurosis, of which the number one victim was Friedrich Nietzsche, neither psychoanalysis nor existential psychology would have been born this way.

3.2

Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud’s science, psychoanalysis, was originally established in order to understand and treat psychopathological manifestations like  Romain Rolland was also the man who suggested the expression „oceanic feeling”, see Freud, 1961/1930. 4

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hysterical symptoms. Freud (1955/1893-95) realized that regular medical methods were not helpful in this context, that is why he had to apply something that was closer to the methods of creative writers than to those of natural scientists. That method was psychoanalytic case study, that focused on “objectifications of life” (symptoms) and their relations to life historical context (biography) and psychodynamic processes related to the unconscious. Following this, between 1895 and 1910, Freud extended his approach to dreams (1900), parapraxes (1901), jokes (1905) and artistic creativity (1907-1910), describing the different “languages of the unconscious”. As a result psychoanalysis as a clinical theory and method transformed into a general depth-psychology of the human psyche which is much closer to human sciences (Geisteswissenschaften) than to medical/natural sciences (Kőváry, 2017). Freud did not give up his position as a natural scientist and a physician, and when he created his abstract ideas about the psyche (his so called “metapsychology”), he insisted on the impersonal and mechanistic principles and concepts of natural sciences. That is why German philosopher Jürgen Habermas (1991/1968) was talking about the “scientistic self-misunderstanding of metapsychology” in the case of psychoanalysis. For Freud, this adherence to natural sciences meant that his approach to psychological phenomena was objective, and represented a superior and unquestionable scientific knowledge that had to be accepted by the affected—and everyone else. Everything else is—according to the title of a book by Freud—is “Resistance to Psycho-Analysis” (Freud, 1961/1925). Freud’s attitude towards self-involvement and subjectivity was controversial. His interest in dreams was not purely scientific; when his father died in 1896, Freud began to manifest neurotic symptoms and at that time he was already aware of the fact that neuroses originated from unconscious conflicts. Being the only psychoanalytic therapist in the world, he couldn’t lay himself on the couch in order to unfold his unconscious. As his patients had already been talking about their dreams during the sessions, and Freud successfully applied free associations to analyze them, so he began to conduct his famous self-analysis via his dreams (Anzieu, 1986). This process, analyzing his patients and himself concurrently, led to the birth of “Interpretation of Dreams” (Freud, 1953/1900), which contains a lot of Freud’s own dreams as examples. In the book’s

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foreword, Freud confesses, that the book was significant for him subjectively as a part of his self-analysis. The father of psychoanalysis continued his self-analysis indirectly in “Leonardo”, as different authors like Jones (1964), Elms (1994) and Blum (2001) emphasized. However, self-­ reflections were not parts of the scientific work at that time, neither epistemologically nor personally, although nowadays we believe that in a qualitative study it is always necessary (Willig, 2008). Expectations were different those days and Freud considered himself as a representative of objective natural sciences, so he did not feel that he should indicate these subjective aspects. Some say that this “indirect self-analysis” was a scientific mistake, but according to Blum (2001), the Leonardo-essay was rather a good chance for Freud to expand the territory of psychoanalysis, to (re)construct his self and to improve his scientific creativity. By acknowledging the importance of countertransference in psychoanalytic therapy, Freud admitted the relevance of emotional self-­ involvement in the process of therapy. It is notable, that this insight was related to a significant historical case: C. G. Jung’s much troubled relationship with Sabine Spielrein (Etkind, 1993). Freud saw countertransference as an obstacle, that must be removed in order to ensure the analyst’s objectivity. But countertransference can be understood and used differently, as Sándor Ferenczi—and related British object relations theorists—emphasized (Mitchell & Black, 1995). Ferenczi and his followers believed that the subjective feelings and the empathy of the analyst that emerges during the sessions are equally as important as scientific knowledge about psychodynamics. These subjective feelings and mental activities that are beyond rationality are not the obstacles to scientific cognizance in psychoanalysis; but if we understand them in supervision, it might help us to understand the patient and the process of the analysis more deeply. In this context we would like to refer to a historical Hungarian version of psychoanalytic supervision that was based on this recognition. A representative of the Budapest School of Psychoanalysis, Vilma Kovács (1883-1940), the disciple of Ferenczi, in her article “Training Analysis and Control Analysis” (Kovács, 1993/1933) emphasized that a particular candidate’s training analyst and her/his first supervisor has to be the same person, because the themes that dominated the training analysis would appear in the first cases of the future analyst. It also suggests that

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self-­knowledge and knowing the Other, deeply and mutually pervade each other. Freud himself experienced it in his most inventive period, perhaps because he was personally involved, which is an unmistakably existential aspect.

3.3

Leopold Szondi

Leopold Szondi (1889-1986) was a Hungarian-then-Swiss psychiatrist, who invented “fate analysis” and discovered the so-called “family unconscious”, which he placed between Freud’s “personal” and Jung’s “collective” unconscious (Szondi, 1993/1955). Szondi believed that, while the Freudian unconscious uses the language of symptoms and the Jungian uses the language of symbols, the family unconscious influences our significant choices—the choice of love-object, occupation, ideals and world-­ view, illness and forms of death. The Szondi-theory and practice are not widely accepted, but those who get to know it deeply usually find it revealing and useful. The basic idea of family unconscious was born circa 1911, when Szondi was 18 years old (Szondi, 1996/1954, 1996/1973). He read the novels “Sin and Punishment” and “Brothers Karamazov” by the Russian writer and forerunner of existentialism, Fyodor Dostoevsky. Szondi was shocked by the penetrating power of Dostoyevsky’s psychological portraying of sinners and saints and began to wonder where this special talent was coming from. Szondi began to study Dostoevsky’s family history, and he realized, that for centuries before Dostoevsky was born, the writer’s family was full of violent murders and holy men—so the writer elaborated and projected these deep unconscious influencing tendencies into the figures that he created in his stories. Dostoevsky became Szondi’s first “patient”, whom he analyzed by using an original idea which came into being by studying the writer’s works and life. It was a special form of psychobiography, trying to reveal the interrelations between life and thought. But an insight like this cannot be separated from the inventor’s whole personality. Hungarian psychoanalyst Imre Hermann, who was an expert in the subject of creativity, claimed that no significant idea (even scientific ideas) can come to existence without the involvement of the

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unconscious (Hermann, 2007/1945). From a philosophical point of view, as Kierkegaard wrote, every significant knowledge has an existential relevance because it is “an existing spirit who now asks about truth, presumably because he wants to exist in it… All essential knowing concerns existence, or only such knowing as has an essential relation to existence is essential” (Kierkegaard, 2009/1846, pp.  160 and 166). We must also keep Erikson’s (1958) discovery in our mind: when psychologists (or a future psychologists, like Szondi) are dealing with a biographical cases, they will soon find out that the “imaginary client” has been dealing with them. Sometimes, as in the case of Freud, this aspect remains implicit. Can we recognize the influence of this dimension in the emergence of Szondi’s creativity, that couldn’t have existed without the involvement of the unconscious (Hermann, ibid) and the Kierkegaardian “essential relation to existence”? We can find an existential aspect, a primary indicator of psychological salience (Alexander, 1990) in Szondi’s writing “Fate-Analysis and Self-­ Confession” (Szondi , 1996/1973). Before Szondi writes of this Dostoevsky-experience and the problem of choice, he reveals, in the previous a paragraph that in the same year his father died, and according to the Jewish tradition, he prayed the Kaddish in his religious community for one year, twice every day. This was an important part of his conscious grief. But according to our assumption, it was not accidental that during the same time he came under the influence of Dostoevsky. Szondi never mentions that there might be a meaningful connection between the two; it might have been a blind spot for him, an “omission” as a primary indicator of psychological saliency according to the abovementioned Irvin Alexander (1990). Why do we think that there has to be a connection? It is impossible that two experiences of such importance can exist within a personality without any kind interrelation at the same time. If this interrelation does not come into being consciously, the unconscious surely will create it. From a psychological point of view Dostoevsky’s life and works are strongly related to the death of the father as a motif. In “Dostoevsky and Parricide” Freud (1961/1927-1928) claims, that “Brothers Karamazov” is the greatest novel ever written, and it is no surprise that besides Sophocles’ “Oedipus Rex” and Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” it is also about parricide, the

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death of the father, an important aspect of universal Oedipus-complex. Freud also notes that Dostoevsky’s epilepsy probably contained psychological factors, as its first serious manifestation was related to the situation when the writer learned about his father’s death. The father was a cruel landlord and his bondmen beat him to death. As the father was also harsh to his son as well, the son’s murderous temper was probably repressed, and when the unconscious wish finally fulfilled indirectly, the outburst of the epileptic seizure, a death-equivalent was an identification with the dead father and a self-punishment as well. Dostoevsky’s intensive moral attitude (his “saint” part) in Freud’s interpretation, is also related to these guilty feelings, a “punishment” for his unconscious “sin”. Freud’s Dostoevsky-interpretation was published fourteen years after Szondi’s fruitful insight. But we believe that these scientific explanations were not necessary at all for the experiences that led to Szondi’s illumination: the emotionally involved Hungarian young man, reading Dostoevsky’s works and life history, was able to “discover “the I in the thou”. It means that studying Dostoevsky’s life and works presumably surely helped the young Szondi to cope with the unconscious, ambivalent parts of his grief. These parts were probably related to rage and murderous temper, that are always the part of the Oedipus-complex. The same psychological conflicts affected Freud at the time of his father’s death, which led to the discovery of the meaning of dreams and—later— the importance of the Oedipus-motif. It is another primary indicator of psychological saliency, that Szondi was occupied with this topic on a lifelong basis. In his old-age work, “Cain the Lawbreaker—Moses the lawmaker” (Szondi, 1986) he deals with the question, that how murderous temper (“Cain’s rage”) is transforming into an ethical approach psychologically and historically. (The same interpretation appears in Nietzsche’s “Genealogy of Morality”.) We can conclude that this imaginary “mutual analysis” that Szondi conducted, helped him to mourn his father unconsciously and was not independent from this, to release his creativity by becoming an innovative psychiatrist. Mourning and working through depressive feelings is strongly related to creativity (Haynal, 1985).

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 ersonality Transformation during P Psychobiographical Research—A Theoratical Outline

According to existential psychologist Viktor E. Frankl (1971/1950) in the long run, life’s meaningfulness is the most important key to human well-being. Frankl says that there are three ways to achieve this: first to create something new and valuable, second is the reception the world, to discover the beauty and truth of existence , and third is to bear the suffering that is an inevitable part of life. However, reception and creation cannot be separated from each other. Every creative process starts with a reception as inspiration: an openness to new experiences or encounters makes “preparation” (including inspiration) possible, which is the first phase of the creative process (Runco, 2007). These experiences can be very different, but most of the time a real inspiration is beyond the horizons of everyday usual influences . So every time creative persons (like Nietzsche, Freud or Szondi in our cases) start to write a psychobiography or something similar, they are first impressed by someone else’s creative activity, expressed via a “fixed objectifications of life” (Dilthey, 1990). Something transformative happens inside the future creator and this experience—thanks to the person’s creative will (Rank, 1989/1932)— sooner or later will manifest itself in another “objectification of life”, a written form of interpretation of the Other’s creative product—in our context, as a psychobiography. To understand this process psychologically, we always must interpret the interpreter in order to unfold the personal psychological sources of their knowledge and attitude towards the subject (Stolorow & Atwood, 1979). Our interpretation of the Other’s activity in a psychobiography might contain a “self-analysis” as well, because if we start to reflect on our emotional involvement during our psychobiographical analysis, we will surely achieve deeper self-knowledge—we discover the “I in the Thou”. The first psychobiographer who reflected on this was Erik Erikson, who—besides emphasizing that during these analyses, the analyzer too is by their “patient”—noted, that interpreter has to examine what this

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subject that they are currently working on mean to them personally, in their actual life, and longitudinally as well (Erikson, 1968). The psychodynamics of this process can be unfolded with the use of Norman Holland’s model which he displayed in his article “Literary Interpretation and Three Phases of Psychoanalysis” (Holland, 1976). According to this, the reader’s response, the process of literary interpretation from a psychological point of view is similar to the psychoanalytic phenomenon of countertransference, which is an unconscious/unreflected reaction to the patient’s personality. Holland found that this process has four phases: expectation, defense, fantasy and transaction. In the expectation phase we approach the text, an “objectification of life” with openness under the influence of our wishes, motivations or needs, like curiosity or the wish to understand something. Defense comes into view, because the material always contains parts or aspects that would take us beyond our boundaries and it raises anxiety, then a defense against it. Defense will result in a special selection of the material; that is why, if later we later return to the same text or work of art, our experience will probably be different—due to our personal changes. In fantasy we project our wishes onto the selected material, which gives a personal, subjective and unique tone to the experience. Finally, in transaction, the internalized material transforms into themes, which manifest themselves in as interpretation. Henry A. Murrays “Thematic Apperception Test” is also based on these psychodynamic aspects (Kőváry, 2020). From a psychoanalytic point of view, dreams are also the results of a transaction, which was provoked by unconscious “vibrations” aroused by a daily experience. Dreams are especially important, because a dream is the richest and most complex form of our everyday creativity, how we transform our emotional experiences via the unconscious. That is why they can serve as an excellent and irreplaceable tool in psychotherapy (Krékits & Kőváry, 2017). Two important dimensions of this process are worth mentioning. According to Holland (1976) in order to keep ourselves away from the provinces of the non-self, which raises anxiety, we always apply defenses unconsciously and select the “harmless” material. But that will not keep us away from the temporary dissolution of the self-other boundaries, which Dilthey (1990) formulated as a necessary “losing ourselves in a strange life”. Psychologists and therapists named this experience by using

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several different expressions like “participation mystique” (Jung, 1976/1921, adopted from anthropologist Lucien Levy-Bruhl) or “refusion with the object” (Kernberg, 1986). This is an experience that is longed for and feared at the same time, because it is connected to the unconscious, regressive wish to return to the “womb”, or return to “paradise lost” in mythologies. It promises heaven, but might put us through hell, because losing our individuality by returning to the “womb” always raises “death fear” (Rank (1968/1929-31). In special cases this regression is beneficial: in the psychoanalytic theory of creativity, Ernst Kris (2000/1958) talks about inspiration as a “regression in the service of the ego”. It means that in the creative process first we lose ourselves in the unconscious (inspiration), and after this phase which is psychologically dominated by primary mental processes (like in dreams), we return to consciousness with valuable raw material, which must be elaborated upon successfully, using secondary mental processes. As Hungarian writer Arthur Koestler (1990/1964) says: creation assumes plunging into dreamlike states; the creator backs off to be able to jump farther. Another important factor is a lived experience, a necessary encounter with the world (May, 1976), that enhances the basically intrinsic motivation to create. This external factor is press, one of the “6 P-s” of creativity (person, process, press product, potential, persuasion, see Kozbelt, Beghetto & Runco, 2010). Hungarian psychoanalyst Imre Hermann (2007/1930) called this a “triggering force” that interacts with “talent as a whole” (biological and psychological givens) and “driving partial roots” (instinctual drives that are sublimated in creativity). The necessary triggering forces can be very different: conflicts, crises, traumas, boundary situations (Jaspers, 2008) or peak experiences (Maslow, 1968) as well. Maslow claims, that peak experiences are acute identity experiences. It means that a personal interest behind psychobiographical research often comes from a “turn of fate” situation in the author’s life, an “essential relation to existence”, according to Kierkegaard (op. cit.) The indirect working through of this situation with the use of psychobiographical research might lead to personal transformation, creating or (re)constructing the authors identity. This activity supports the individuals becoming themselves; the historical cases we discussed above all suggest that. Another convincing example of this is the case of Henry

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A. Murray (Kőváry, 2020). Murray was a biologist/physician, conducting research in biochemistry when, in his 30’s, he experienced an early midlife crisis. In 1927 three important encounters happened in his life: he met Christiana Morgan, who influenced him deeply, then she introduced Murray to her former therapist, Carl Gustav Jung, while at the same time Murray also discovered Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick”. Following this, Murray began to write Melville’s psychobiography, which became a lifelong project for him. He never published it entirely, but the finished parts—according to Barresi & Juckes (1997)—are said to be among the best psychobiographies ever been written. These encounters made Murray one of the greatest personality psychologists of the USA, and he realized his creative potential by founding an independent trend in personality psychology called personology. We believe that working on our personal psychological issues indirectly during psychobiographical research (“discovering the I in the Thou”) can be highly beneficial. The study can establish an optimal aesthetic distance (Scheff, 1979) between our self and the still unresolved conflict/trauma/issue, which always determines our choices of subject. Dealing with something that is impersonal is related to overdistancing, which means that our research process will not contain existential aspects that vitalize the project. Underdistancing can cause self-re-­traumatization, as sometimes happens when traumatized authors are trying to overcome their traumas by direct autobiographies (Rosenblum, 2012). According to these aspects we think that psychobiography is an optimal method to develop the training of psychology students.

5

Psychobiography and University Education

One of us (Zoltán Kőváry) formerly elaborated in detail why psychobiography could play an outstanding role in the training of psychologists in higher education (Kőváry, 2019). In here we are only summarizing these ideas briefly. Psychobiography is a research method that improves its user in different ways. On one hand it requires the researcher to integrate

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psychological knowledge at a very high level: the researcher has to use personality psychology, developmental psychology, occasionally general and social psychology as well, and the different areas of applied psychology: the psychology of creativity, cultural psychology or even psychopathology as well. Also, psychobiography is an interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary approach, so philosophy, anthropology, linguistics, literary criticism, history, religion, sociology or medical sciences frequently come into view—depending on the research questions. “Pure” psychology is usually not enough. As contemporary psychobiography attempts to avoid pathography, it might help psychology students to avoid the “psychiatrization” of psychological phenomena, to separate the different levels of understanding, and to discover the “existential” behind the “clinical”. During the research, significant questions are raised, which affect the essence of psychological research, such as how can we formulate proper research questions, that help us to understand the particular person’s most important psychological dimensions? What kind of documents will help us to find the relevant information? In qualitative research epistemological reflections are always necessary: how the knowledge and the methods that I use fit the nature of the subject? What are the limitations of my approach? What is the real nature of the psychological phenomena I investigate? What kind of contexts (personal, social, cultural, historical) shaped the studied person’s experience? We believe that these questions help students to get a clearer picture about their science. We also believe that this kind of deep studies support the development of skills that will be extremely important in practice: counselling or psychotherapy. This research method is closer to psychotherapy than any other kind of research methods: we are investigating the whole person in her/his life historical context in order to find interrelations between “objectifications of life”, intellectual, social, aesthetic, spiritual experiences, personality dynamics and several contexts. “Every therapy can be seen as a unique research project” (Adams, 2019, 179), so from a point of view this kind of research can be seen as an “imaginary psychotherapy”, as Erikson (1958) referred to it. We suppose that a psychobiographical study improves empathy and psychological sensitivity (Kőváry, 2019); this is related to the intrapersonal and the interpersonal dimensions of the research process as well. The interpersonal is related to the “case

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discussions” that we can organize during our courses, when students make presentations about their research findings. As the subjects of psychobiographies are mostly well-known people, other students can relate them personally more easily than to clinical cases, and the source of the information about the subject is not limited to the presenter’s report; it can be completed from other, or different sources. The validation of the interpretation is easier too, as research studies are based on public and freely available documents. There are no ethical issues, the identity of the protagonist can be revealed, and no interrelations with any kind of contextual aspect have to be kept secret. The final aspect we must mention is the question of self-knowledge. In qualitative research it is related to necessary “personal reflections” (Willig, 2008). We know that the personality of the researcher always influences the research project, just like in the process of psychotherapy. It shows up in the choice of subject, in the formulation of research questions (which is related to “defense” or selection according to Holland, 1976), in the process of interpretation and in drafting conclusions too. The exclusion of subjectivity in these dimensions is impossible, because if we do not reflect on them subjective factors will influence our work implicitly. The researcher has to clarify the nature of their relationship with their subject several times during the study. The researcher is part of the process and the research project is an excellent opportunity to unfold the peculiarities of this participation; otherwise it remains the part of the interpretation that is unreflected. As Kierkegaard wrote more than 170 years ago: “When truth is asked about objectively, reflection is directed objectively at truth as an object to which the knower relates. Reflection is not on the relation but on it being the truth, the true that he is relating to. If only this, to which he relates, is the truth, the true, then the subject is in the truth. If the truth is asked about subjectively, reflection is directed subjectively on the individual’s relation; if only the how of this relation is in truth, then the individual is in truth, even if he related in this way to untruth.” (Kierkegaard, 2009/1846, 166-167). Reflections during the research project can reveal several important psychological factors about the researcher: they can be uplifting or disturbing, but always informative, insightful, cathartic and transformative, and it happens in a safe optimal aesthetic distance (Scheff, 1979).

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Reflected identification with the protagonist helps us to remain close enough to ourselves, so the insights can go “deeper” than in mere cognitive understanding, but the subject remains far psychologically far enough to avoid emotional overwhelming. Self-knowledge that is coming from these insights and reflections are very important. The personality of the psychologist is one of the most important factors in psychotherapy and similar activities: Otto Rank and Carl Rogers were the first pioneers who emphasized this (Kramer, 2019), but modern “common factors”researches suggest the same (Duncan, 2002). Therefore, psychology students—beside professional skills—have to improve their personalities as well, in order to become the psychologist they want to become (Kőváry, 2019). Training therapies serve this aim: the candidate’s personality becomes more integrated and less neurotic, and they also experience the effects of the method they intend to apply in the future. Universities cannot provide this as a part of the curriculum (because of ethical issues, for example), and students mostly cannot afford training therapy in their university years. (It is not useful, if their parents or someone else supports it financially; the personal financial effort is an inherent part of the process.) We suppose, that until a student can afford a training therapy, during the university years a reflected psychobiography research can serve as a “prologue” to professional self-knowledge. Psychobiographical studies also support identity-forming, because—as one of our students claimed— a student can feel like a “real psychologist” during the research. These benefits of psychobiography are still not recognized widely. According to Ponterotto et  al. (2015) some parts of psychobiography appear in different psychology courses in North-America, but complete psychobiography courses are rare. There is an impressive “school” of psychobiography in South-Africa (Mayer & Kőváry, 2019); where psychobiography is applied in higher education and in the training of psychologists frequently and successfully. In our home country, Hungary, EU, psychobiography presents in two universities and on different levels of education. In Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, where we work, writing a psychobiography is an option to write an applied thesis. (The students have to submit not one long, but two shorter theses: an empirical and an applied one.) Hence “The method of psychobiographical research” is an optional course at master’s level for the students of clinical/health

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psychology specialization. The course is available for PhD students as well in a different form. Psychobiography is the part of the curriculum at the University of Pécs, Institute of Psychology, in the theoretical psychoanalytic program of the psychological doctoral school. Our experiences concerning the psychological effects of psychobiography writing emanate from the personal reports of the students after submitting their papers. These impressions supplemented our personal experiences and the elucidations of the historical cases that we presented above. That is why we decided to examine this phenomenon empirically, too; in the final part of our chapter we present this study. Our research questions were the following: How are psychobiography courses and research described by students? How can they utilize their experiences resulting from psychobiography courses and research?

6

Our Empirical Reasearch

6.1

Method

A call for application was sent to twelve people who participated in psychobiography courses in the past four to five years at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary. Nine of them agreed to participate in our research. A structured written interview with seven related questions was sent to them, and they were asked to fill that form and send it back to the second author via e-mail, with the completed consent form. The interviews contained seven questions which address their experiences in the psychobiography research, and the possible effects of the course on their professional career and on their personality. Then the second author downloaded these files which did not have names on them and deleted the original e-mails. Following this, we analysed the collected written interviews to identify the common topics: we used inductive thematic analysis with a realist epistemology (Terry, Hayfield, Clarke & Braun, 2017). At first the interviews were read carefully and primary notes were taken in a research diary. Then we put our interview into a three-column table. The first column contained the interviews, the second the codes

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and the third, the themes. Codes were annotations of texts, short summaries, highlighting relevant pieces of texts, self-reflection and personal relevancies. Themes contained information relevant to our research questions. They were interpretations of personal relevance, experience of research, the nature of knowledge gained at the course, utilisation of such knowledge and acts of self-reflection, for example: Research topic was created by comparing his life to the object’s life; Self-reflection during the analysis and the research changed her relationship to the object. At first, we read and reread the texts, then codes were made in all the interviews. Codes and texts were considered together and themes were identified. Throughout the nine interviews we identified 91 themes. Themes were then printed and cut into separate slips of paper. Then we carefully read the themes again, relevant themes were categorised into main and subthemes. We continued the categorisation of themes until we reached a structure of main and subtheme categories which was well defined and did not have any overlapping. In total we created two main themes (Psychobiography and self-knowledge and Utilisation in praxis) and 7 subthemes.

6.2

Results

According to our interviewees, a psychobiography course had several influences on their lives. In Table 2.1. we present the main fields of effects, and its layers:

Table 2.1  Themes and subthemes in the interviews Main themes

Subthemes

Effects on self

Choosing the object Interaction with the analysed person Self-analysis through the research Reflected way of thinking Idiography Theoretical hand-holds New perspectives

Useful skills

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Self-knowledge All of our interviewees mentioned their emotional involvedness in the research at various levels. As they chose to investigate artists by themselves, they chose someone who was significant in their lives. Through the research they were reflecting on their own involvedness and gained new insights on many levels.

Choosing the object As the leader of the psychobiography course asks students to do their own research, they have to choose their own object for analysis. Our participants reported choosing their objects based on their preferences, or sympathy. It means they had some interest or even emotional connection to the artists they chose to investigate: I have started to listen to their (Nirvana) music before the psychobiography course, in a crisis-like, stuck stage of my life. I felt that even their music rough and powerful it eased my mind. (B2) It immediately became obvious to me who to choose. The world he has created has moved me even during high school. Still it defines my way of thinking very much. (h, 3) He is associated with my first love […] my sense of love is totally intermingled with Ady’s (20th century Hungarian poet) narcissist pathos. (E2)

Choosing the object of the research appears to be an important stage of getting involved in the study. In these quotations it appears, that the objects they choose were artists who had strong connections to their personal life, and also influenced the process of research. It also means, that they do not just analyse a person, but analyse their connection with that artist, their relevance in their lives.

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Interaction with the analysed person A strong emotional connection motivated them to carry on their research and to understand more of what that person meant to them, or that feeling/part of their life which was associated with what the object meant to them. The research process was depicted as an interaction between the object and the researcher by some. By reading more raw data, and by gaining various perspectives on Lennon (by him, by biographers, family members, artist colleagues etc), the object of the research started to speak to me. (G) There are two centuries between us, but still I felt like I knew him in person (H)

The researcher interacts with the object. It is described as a dynamic process with changing emotions, and moods (A) or an emotional rollercoaster (H). Diving into one’s art and one’s life provides an opportunity to get closer to the person’s thoughts and to understand them better during the research. But by this process one’s connection and the personal meaning of the artist changes. In many cases this connection becomes more lively and closer, but in one case the deeper understanding caused a sense of distance between the interviewee and the object. I am building a wall between us. It is like when I am analysing the other after breaking up, I am rationalizing my deeds, depersonalizing and distancing them. This is the good word: distancing. This is what is actually happening during the psychobiography research. (E)

During the research one gets to know more of their object. As these artists were important parts of their lives, getting to know more about them caused change in how they were experienced and interpreted. They gained more perspectives and became complex, more lively, closer, sometimes more distant. So, they can set the “optimal aesthetic distance” (Scheff, 1979).

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Self-analysis through the research Some interviewees claim that the research is more about the researcher than about the object (C, G, B). Finding the object and the topic in itself consists a lot of personal decision. One has to choose a person and find something in their lives to focus on. They “instinctively” follow what Alan C. Elms (1994) suggests: Let the subject choose you! Topics are usually made by active comparison of oneself as a researcher and the objects life and works and were described as emerging. I was analysing John Lennon’s life through the similarities and differences between our lives and personalities. (G)

The comparisons gave opportunities to self-investigation as well as they shared one’s attention: paying attention to the life of the object while paying attention to one’s own life. The personal relevance is key of importance, as one also discovers where and how his own private life is connected (c,7) with the artists life. Understanding the object and my life (…) through the emerging topics

An example of such dynamics can be detected in E’s interview: During analysing Ady (Hungarian poet) I could experience many emotions associated to my relationships and my personality. (E7)

The topics and issues in the object’s life shed light on their personal opinions and experiences, gave opportunity to investigate how they are functioning, what are their personalities like, how they see themselves and different other phenomena in their lives. One of our interviewees described it as Understanding the person in details while understanding my life events that time through a topic of my interest (F2)

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The understanding and personal relevance is associated with various emotions. On a certain point I became so frightened when I was busy with Ledger’s life. I investigated this fright and realized that I identified with him too much (…) This helped me to understand what motivated me to analyze this certain topic. (D6) The first strong biographic parallel between me and the musician’s (John Lennon) childhood is that my parents were so young and had a stormy relationship which made me feel neglected many times (G6)

The emotions which were associated with the topic appeared in the interviewee’s life. In some cases, these emotions were strongly connected to their own personalities or life events, which get more reflected and understood during the research. It showed some overlap with my own connection type, which made me more conscious and aware in my relationships. […] I started to think more actively about this kind of thoughtful, protecting connection type. So it made changes in my own life, which recognition and consciousness is useful during my work (as a psychologist) (F, 6)

Investigation of a certain phenomenon seems to lead to the understanding of one’s own personality, life events, which provides self-­ knowledge. One becomes more aware of how they are thinking, why they are feeling certain emotions. It gives a structured approach to their life and personalities, which understanding and knowledge in turn changed one’s identity. New pieces of information however in one case caused a conflict with oneself: When I learnt that Ady (poet) cheated on Leda (his adored love,) and he told it to her many times in a detailed manner, I was so deceived. I saw him as an arrogant, shabby, narcissistic sot. I became angry. Not only with him, with myself too, because I adored him so much when I was 16. I was blaming my naivety that I didn’t look after him more. (E, 6)

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Understanding the adored poet more made her understand and see her own 16 years old self as a naive girl. This caused a sense of blaming and feeling guilty at the same time for adoring and thinking about him in a rapturous manner. It later turned into acceptance, both the towards the object and towards oneself. Many interviewers claimed that self-­ knowledge is the most important benefit of the research (B5, H7)). They addressed it as it improves the essence of the psychologist’s work: curiosity, integration, understanding and acceptance.

Useful skills Our second main theme consists of all those skills which our interviewees reported to be learnt during the psychobiography research and are useful in their professional work and identity.

Reflective way of thinking Many interviewees mentioned a new quality of thinking learnt during the research. For me it is like when somebody is thinking while speaking. Always thinking and reflecting, and in the end this is the point. (C3)

The new way of thinking, the reflection and consciousness are considered to be the most beneficial and useful affect as one gains an experience of a new quality of thinking: a way of thinking while continuously reflecting on how and why the researcher is interpreting these phenomena. Another interviewer described it as that writing psychobiography gave a new aspect of investigation for him which he thinks is the most useful (F,3). Many interviewees report to have improved their ways of thinking, they are looking for cultural and literary connections (H,5), or in general gave a systematic frame of thinking and understanding (A, 5).

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Idiography The idiographic approach of psychobiography research method was reported to be useful during the act of counselling as well from many aspects. Conceptualisation of a case. Understanding client’s situation and motivation through their own pre-lives. (I, 5) For practising psychologists it might be useful to practice the approach that every client is a new world, and it doesn’t matter how great amount of generalized knowledge one learn in the university, he will meet a unique and matchless person every day in his work as a psychologist. (b4,)

Focusing on one person and understanding them via their own life and the way of their thinking appears to be a helpful approach in psychology practice. It was reported to be a new approach which they did not meet during their studies but gives a sense of freedom and complexity to work with clients (G5) and protects from reducing clients to their diagnoses (F). This person-centred approach is described as influencing them by becoming more careful both in their work and in their personal connections (I7). The personal focus helps to gain empathy towards the client, getting closer through understanding (F3, G4), which in return helps clients to trust their psychologists.

Theoretical hand-holds During the course our interviewees learnt and utilized many psychological theories and concepts which helped them later in their professional lives. Many times I can place my clients’ stories and experiences in those psychoanalytical models that we discussed at the courses. (…) the theoretical hand-holds help me to control my anxiety and various emotions which are rising when I am working with my clients. (D5)

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For beginner psychologists it was reported to be useful to learn some special theories and concepts which they can use in their work and interpretation of clients. Psychobiography courses were said to create an opportunity for not only hearing and learning about such theories, but also give a chance to actively, creatively use them (A5, G4) and integrate them in their ways of thinking. Formerly learned theories “come to life”, so their usefulness became clearer.

New perspectives Two of our interviewees mentioned that psychobiography courses made them to consider doing Ph.D. and becoming a researcher, which they were not planning before. I feel its effect on that since then (the course) I have it in my mind that I will participate in the (…) psychoanalytic Ph.D. programme (at Pécs), where besides the classic empiric research methods I can use other approaches as well. (D5) I met theoretical psychoanalysis on this course for the first time and since then it became my aim to accomplish the connected Doctoral School. (C5)

Psychobiography courses not only gave practical knowledge and new ways of thinking for the participants, but in some cases, it introduced a possible new path of career.

7

Conclusion

In this chapter we wanted to demonstrate, that psychobiography— besides that it is a useful idiographic research method to investigate eminent creativity—has several beneficial effects on the researcher, too, because most of the time it is not a one-way process but rather a “mutual analysis”. On one hand it provides an opportunity to realize creative potentials, enhances the author’s epistemological consciousness, supports the development of the researcher’s professional skills and their identity

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as a scholar. On the other hand, it has psychodynamic and existential effects, too, because it can help the researcher to work on their personal psychological issues in a safe “optimal aesthetic distance”, a distance that they can set and control during the analysis. In this text we have tried to evince this in several ways. First, after defining our subject, we outlined three historical cases (Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud and Leopold Szondi), that all suggest, that a dedicated, long lasting research on another person’s life and works will help the researcher becoming the individual who they really are, professionally and personally too. It recalls Otto Rank’s (1988/1932) opinion: creating something and ourselves in parallel, are the two sides of the same coin. Following this, we interpreted the psychodynamics of this phenomenon with the use of Norman Holland’s (1976) theory. In the last part of the writing we presented our empirical research on the subject: we interviewed nine psychologists who had previously participated psychobiographical courses at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary and during this they had have to conduct a psychobiograhical study. The inductive thematic analysis of the interviews suggested that the supposed interrelation between psychobiography, self-knowledge and psychological skills truly exists. The results support our proposal that psychobiography should be an integral part of the psychology students’ curriculum.

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3 The Oldest Psychobiography in the World? (Psychobiography of Socrates in the Lvov-Warsaw School) Amadeusz Citlak

1

 he Lvov-Warsaw School: Between T Philosophy and Psychology

The formation of Lvov-Warsaw School is one of the most significant achievements of Polish humanist thought and is widely recognised in the world today (Brożek et al., 2015, 2017; Cavallin, 1997; Coniglione et al., 1993; Kijania-Placek & Woleński, 1998; Woleński, 2019). It was a philosophical school founded in 1895  in Lvov by Kazimierz Twardowski, a student of Franz Brentano. After his studies and doctorate at the University of Vienna, he moved to Poland, where he started his scientific and didactic activity at the Jan Kazimierz University in Lvov.1 The first  The south-eastern part of Poland was ruled by the Austro-Hungarian Empire until 1918 (this was the end of the partition period which lasted 123 years). 1

A. Citlak (*) Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 C.-H. Mayer et al. (eds.), Psychobiographical Illustrations on Meaning and Identity in Sociocultural Contexts, Sociocultural Psychology of the Lifecourse, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81238-6_3

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works of the school’s representatives were interdisciplinary, covering philosophical-logical as well as psychological issues (Bobryk, 2001, 2014; Rzepa, 1998, 2019). Eventually, after the publication of Edmund Husserl’s Logische Untersuchungen in 1900–1901, in which he rejected psychologism in logic and philosophy, Twardowski and his students followed the same path. As the years passed, the scientific tradition of the school covered psychology to a lesser extent, focusing mainly on philosophical and logical issues. After the First World War, some of Twardowski’s students moved to the University of Warsaw, where within a short period of time, a Polish school of logic and mathematics was established. The school’s glory years ended with the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. After the war many of its representatives went abroad: Jan Łukasiewicz moved to the Royal Academy of Science in Dublin as a lecturer in mathematical logic, Alfred Tarski became a professor of logic at Berkeley University, Henryk Mehlberg joined the University of Chicago (where he took over the chair of philosophy from Rudolf Carnap), Józef Bocheński joined the University of Freiburg, Henryk Hiż became professor of linguistics at Pennsylvania State University and Edward Poznański joined the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (Woleński, 1989). After the war, Lvov was incorporated into Ukraine and Polish science fell under strong pressure from Soviet Russia and communist ideology. The most important psychological achievements of the Lvov-Warsaw School stemmed primarily from the philosophical tradition. It was the tradition of analytical philosophy and of Brentano’s descriptive psychology. The first works and psychological theories were of this kind, such as Twardowski’s theory of actions and products (1894/1965, 1912/1979), Władysław Witwicki‘s theory of striving for a sense of power (cratism theory) (1907, 1927/1963), and the psychobiographies of Socrates (Witwicki, 1909, 1918, 1920, 1922) and Jesus Christ (Witwicki, 1958). Having acknowledged that mental acts and their products are the subject matter of psychological study, an adequate methodology of psychological research could not be based on observation and experiment, but mainly on the inner ‘observation’—introspection (German: innere Wahrnehmung) (Kreutz, 1949, 1962; Plotka, 2019; Twardowski, 1913/1965; Witwicki, 1926/1962). This was in clear opposition to the one-sided and reductionist psychology of, for example, Titchener in the USA, or the physiological

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psychology of ‘early’ Wundt in Germany (Citlak, 2019c; Rzepa, 2019; Wundt, 1908).2 Since its very beginning, two methods of the development of psychology have been indicated by this school: (a) non-­ experimental (including a cultural-historical approach); (b) experimental with observation and measurement. In both cases a special role was to be played by introspection (Citlak, 2016b, 2019c). Thus, this was a vision of a dual-track psychology similar to that of ‘late’ Wundt (1911–1920) or Lev Vygotsky (Vygotsky, 1931/1997).

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Psychobiography in the Lvov-Warsaw School—Arguably the First Psychobiography in the World

The issue of the psychobiography in the Lvov-Warsaw School is one of the most intriguing phenomena in the psychology of this school and, in a sense, in the world of psychology. The interest in qualitative research and in descriptive psychology favoured such studies of human mental experiences that would focus not so much on the cause-and-effect relationships as on the essence of such experiences (Rzepa & Stachowski, 1993; Rzepa, 1997). According to Twardowski‘s theory of actions and products (1894/1965, 1912/1979), the psychologist could study both mental acts and their products, especially in the form of so-called mental products (e.g. thoughts and emotions) and psychophysical products (e.g. chronicles, documents and works of art). This way of thinking set a wide field of research as early as the turn of the nineteenth/twentieth century in the trend of cultural-historical psychology, which included psychological analyses of documents, works of culture, art, history of language, and personal documents such as diaries, confessions, and individual stories (Citlak, 2016b). This school very soon developed one of the world’s  It is worth noting that there were many of Twardowski’s students who participated in the lectures and research of W. Wundt in Leipzig or other university centres in Germany. In the end, they were not convinced by the programme of reductionist-oriented psychology. It even seemed for a time that the phenomenological tradition of Husserl and his study of consciousness would take an important place in the Lvov-Warsaw School; this, however, eventually did not happen (Domański, 2018). 2

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oldest psychobiographies: the psychobiography of Socrates published in stages from 1909. The author of the psychobiography of Socrates was one of K. Twardowski‘s favourite students, Władysław Witwicki, who after the First World War moved to the University of Warsaw, where he was a professor of psychology until his death in 1948. He educated numerous Polish psychologists, was the author of the first Polish psychology textbook (Witwicki, 1926/1962, 1927/1963), conducted research in art psychology, social psychology and the psychology of religion (Witwicki, 1939/1959, 1958; see Nowicki, 1982; Rzepa, 1991). Witwicki was an expert in Greek culture (Witwicki, 1947), and published numerous works on the subject. His greatest achievement in this field was the translation into Polish of Plato‘s Dialogues.3 He had a profound influence on academic and cultural life in the country and was renowned as a critic of the church and religious dogmatism (Nowicki, 1982). The psychobiography of Socrates was written in stages and in many respects, it is a unique psychobiography. Firstly, it was written during Witwicki‘s translation work on Plato‘s Dialogues, which are the main source of knowledge about Socrates’ life. Secondly, Witwicki wrote it with a sense of close psychological bond with Socrates. It was not a dispassionate analysis of a historical figure, but an emotionally and cognitively engaged identification with the ‘object’ of study. Thirdly, it was one of the key elements of his theory of cratism, a theory of striving for a sense of power (similar to Alfred Adler‘s theory, but presented a few years earlier4). The analysis of Socrates’ personality reinforced Witwicki’s belief in the universal human striving for a sense of superiority and power. Furthermore, this is paradoxically a non-psychoanalytical psychobiography in which Freud‘s theory plays virtually no part. Witwicki‘s most important and initial work on the subject was published in 1909 as a result of his interest in Plato‘s texts prompted by K. Twardowski in Lvov (Rzepa, 2002). This work was his translation of the dialogue Symposium from Greek into Polish with his numerous  The commentaries to the Dialogues provide Witwicki’s psychological comments on individual characters and the relationships between them. 4  Adler presented the main theorems of his theory in 1907, 1912 and 1920, while Witwicki did so in 1900, 1907 and 1927. 3

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comments and introduction. However, these were not merely linguistic or historical comments and an introduction. They were the comments of a philologist and psychologist, who analyses the psychological dynamics of Socrates’ behaviour and aspirations which had a decisive influence on his relations with the social environment. Witwicki was interested in the structure of the personality and the main motivational mechanism of the Greek philosopher. By 1909, Witwicki had already recognised that Socrates was guided by a cratic desire (gr. kratos—strength, power), that is, a desire for a sense of power and psychological superiority over others. This was also the first such clear case confirming his theory, the basic theses of which he first presented in his doctoral dissertation in 1900 and later in 1907. His subsequent publications on Socrates are just a further elaboration of the contents of 1909: in 1918 he published his own translation and commentaries on the dialogue Phaedrus, in 1920 on the Defence of Socrates and in 1922 on the dialogue Gorgias. In short, a psychological portrait of Socrates was created in 1909 and later supplemented with new content. In world literature, the first psychobiography is considered to be the psychological portrait of Leonardo da Vinci created by Sigmund Freud, published in 1910 titled Eine Kindheitserinnerung des Leonardo da Vinci (Runyan, 1984, 2005).5 Therefore, if both psychobiographies were to be compared based on the time of publication, Witwicki‘s Socrates should be recognised as the first (although, in terms of volume, it is half as long as Freud’s). Unfortunately, Witwicki published in Polish, and as a result, his most original work did not reach a wider circle of psychologists in the world, just like many other works of the Lvov-Warsaw School. However, the time of publication is not so important here. What is important here is the scientific maturity of the psychobiography. Both are based on coherent, although different, theories. These theories did not emerge from experimental research but from the analysis and interpretation of human behaviour and cultural products. Psychoanalysis has always been close to the hermeneutic tradition, whereas the theory of cratism is a typical example of the descriptive and, in a sense, phenomenological  I would like to thank Kinga Citlak, a Germanist, for her valuable consultation on the German text of S. Freud’s Eine Kindheitserinnerung des Leonardo da Vinci. 5

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psychology. The claims of both psychologists about Socrates and Leonardo can be considered plausible, but unfortunately, they cannot be verified. Freud’s psychoanalysis was above all more conceptually complex, involving a complex system of variables, coherently linked by the dynamics of subconscious forces and defence mechanisms. In this respect, the theory of striving for a sense of power offered a smaller network of variables and possible relationships and therefore, offered possibilities that were less exploratory (at least in 1909). It was based on the central mechanism of cratic desire (desire for power), achieved by humiliating or ‘elevating’ oneself or others, which regulated interpersonal emotions and mutual relationships. Subconscious processes do not play as important a role here as in the work of Freud. In the case of da Vinci, however, Freud’s interpretations are so highly speculative that their credibility is extremely problematic. The inquiry into the origins of Leonardo’s homosexuality, his incestuous desires and his sublimation of sexuality, seems to have no limits. Moreover, this is the fundamental problem of psychoanalytic interpretation, as Freud presented it in his works more than once, abstracting strongly from the historical and cultural realities of the figures under study (Freud, 1939).6 Witwicki’s interpretations are not so speculative, nor entangled in hypothetical networks of possible explanations. The psychobiography of Socrates is well grounded in the cultural realities of the time, even if Witwicki made a rather free translation of the Greek text (Elzenberg, 1957; Rzepa, 2002). Moreover, Freud developed the theory of psychoanalysis primarily in the doctor’s office while working with people suffering from various disorders. The theory of cratism, on the other hand, was developed largely from the analysis of the works of Plato and Aristotle. The figure of Socrates was one of the key inspirations for the further development of the theory of pursuit for a sense of power. In this respect, it has some of the characteristics of a grounded theory (Barney, 1998) (i.e. one that emerged from the texts on Socrates) and is not merely secondarily imposed on these texts, as can clearly be seen in Freud.

 This does not, of course, detract from the originality of Freud’s work, especially since Leonardo’s analysis of personality represents only one of several interpretative models. This can be seen, for example, in Der Moses des Michelangelo, in which Freud applies a more structural model of interpretation, or in Traumdeutung, in which the analysis of the linguistic layer of experience plays a dominant role (Dybel, 2011). 6

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Thus, although the psychobiography of Socrates is a year older, it should be seen as part of the process of the formation of the theory of cratism and as one of Witwicki‘s first attempts to interpret cultural works. It was limited to identifying the main motivational mechanism and its most expressive manifestations that regulated Socrates’ relations with the social environment. Freud provided a subtler and more complex analysis of the Italian humanist’s life, looking for the complex interplay of psychological forces hidden in the artist’s subconscious. Although it is possible to agree or disagree with Freud’s diagnosis of Leonardo’s homosexuality, largely based on an interpretation of his childhood memories of the vulture, there is no doubt that it represents a rich workshop and Freud’s unique skills as a psychologist.7 Personally, I think that the dispute over primacy is a secondary problem. Definitely more important is the general contribution of the psychological tradition of the Lvov-Warsaw School to the psychobiographical research in the world, which still remains unknown outside the circle of Polish psychologists (Citlak, 2016b, 2019b; Rzepa, 1997, 2002). This is all the more so because not only was the original psychobiography of Socrates written in this school (it has since been based on cratism theory) but also the psychobiography of Jesus of Nazareth, based on cratism theory, written during the war in 1941 and published in 1958 (Witwicki, 1958).8 In the history of psychobiographical research, the first place is reserved for the psychoanalytic tradition in the persons of S. Freud (Freud, 1910/2019), E. Erikson (Erikson, 1958, 1969) and E. Fromm (Fromm, 1973), not to mention other psychoanalysts of the time (see Pietikainen & Ihanus, 2003; Runyan, 1984, 2005). I believe, however, that considering the achievements of Twardowski‘s school, one should take both traditions into account when discussing the beginnings of the psychobiographical research: the psychoanalytical tradition stemming from Freud’s theory and the analytical-descriptive tradition rooted in the Lvov-Warsaw School. So, what is the psychological portrait of Socrates and does it bring anything significant to the issue of meaning-making in human life?  This can already be seen in Freud’s (1907) publication, Der Wahn und die Träume in W. Jensens “Gradiva”, as well as in other works. 8  The psychobiography of Jesus has recently been presented in psychological literature (Citlak, 2016b, 2019a; see also the cratic interpretation of biblical texts: Citlak, 2021a, 2021b). 7

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 triving for the Sense of Power S as Meaning-making in Socrates’ Life

Conversation, dialogue and the negotiation of beliefs were of particular value in ancient Greece. In the public sphere, public dialogue and consequently the ability to persuade and to make speeches was paramount. The Greek polis supported the dissent of opinions and the inquiry into truth (Burckhardt, 1998; Murray, 1990). But it was here—and not, for example, among the religious Israelites or in ancient Egypt—that the most socially desirable values became not only the truth and ideas but above all, the ability to justify them rationally and logically. These qualities provided a sense of deep meaning to personal actions and had a direct impact on the individual’s sense of worth and high social evaluation Analysing the written sources on the life of Socrates (be it Aristophanes‘ Clouds or Plato‘s Dialogues), a close analogy can be drawn between what was highly regarded socially and what was important in an individual’s life and determined their life purpose. Socrates’ life was all about the word and dialogue, through which he could discover the mysteries of the world and of the soul. According to his ethical intellectualism, cognition (episteme) enables a person to reach the truth, thus it is synonymous with virtue and goodness. The ethical intellectualism and individualism, eventually lead him to a conflict with the polis, condemnation, and a death sentence (Krońska, 2001). The portrayal of Socrates described above is well known and is particularly evident in Plato‘s Dialogues. It is, I would say, the official version of the great teacher and master admired by later generations (Nails, 2018), and an inspiration for contemporary psychologists who regard his teachings as the theoretical basis for psychotherapy and psychology (Brickhouse & Smith, 2010; Lageman, 1989). However, this image can be subjected to a slightly different assessment. This was first performed in 1909 by W. Witwicki, who created the world’s first psychobiography of Socrates.9  The chronologically second psychological interpretation of Socrates’ personality appeared six years later: M. Karpas (1915). Socrates in the light of modern psychopathology. The Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 10(3), 185–200. The author perceives in Socrates a precursor of psychology and psychotherapy, although he attributes masochism to him (expressed in an ascetic attitude), hallucinations and mother-complex, i.e. an emotional relationship with the mother, stronger than the relationship 9

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Theoretical Context

The theory of cratism originated in the milieu of the Lvov-Warsaw School and was published in stages (Witwicki, 1900, 1907, 1927/1963). It is one of the most widely discussed psychological theories in Poland (Citlak, 2016a; Jadczak, 1981; Markinówna, 1935; Nowicki, 1982; Rzepa, 1991; Szmyd, 1996), which unfortunately has never been verified empirically. There is no need to discuss it in detail—it is available in the literature (Citlak, 2016b, 2019a, 2019b). The basic motivational mechanism determining the mental life of a human being is based on the striving for a sense of power and strength. In the first phase of the development of his theory (in the doctoral dissertation of 1900), Witwicki used the concept of ambition as a positive force and a noble feeling, “pushing man upwards”, which he had already noticed in the texts of Plato and Aristotle (Witwicki, 1900, p. 48; Rzepa, 1991). In 1907, it was already seen that a striving/force provides man with states of power in the moments of gaining power over oneself or others. These are cratic states (from the Greek kratos—strength, power), and the pursuit of such states is an elevating/ degrading cratism, or a positive/negative cratism (Witwicki, 1907). At the same time, this striving is understood as an instinct and even a drive, a “drive for power” (Witwicki, 1907, pp. 535–536). Most of the behaviours classified as altruism and egoism in fact have the same source—the striving for a sense of power. It can be achieved through the realisation of cratic desires: (a) by humiliating oneself (e.g. remorse), (b) by humiliating others (e.g. cruelty), (c) by supporting/elevating oneself (e.g. pride, egoism, conceit), (d) by supporting/elevating others (e.g. altruistic behaviour). The most developed form of the theory appears in the textbook Psychology (Witwicki, 1927/1963), in which the cratic desires are used by Witwicki to classify feelings,10 and even religious and aesthetic experiences. Religion and aesthetic experiences very often provide a sense of power due to, among other factors, the feeling of integration with a with the father, which influenced all his philosophical activity. Socrates in his “the art of intellectual midwifery compared himself with his mother” (Karpas, 1915, p. 191). 10  For this reason, among others, the theory of cratism is also considered a theory of feelings (Rzepa, 1995).

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higher power11 or the experience of harmony and order (Gestalt) in contact with a work of art. Most importantly, cratic desires are subject to historical variation and are culturally conditioned. In ancient times, a sense of power was achieved through the physical domination over others or even through oppression, violence, or public humiliation. Over time, with the increasing complexity of social relations and the development of new, more appropriate forms of gaining position and social dominance, physical power gave way to professional, social, or moral competence.12 It is easy to notice, which has also been repeatedly emphasised in literature, that the theory of cratism is very similar to A. Adler‘s theory of striving for a sense of power (Adler, 1907, 1912, 1920; see Citlak, 2016b, 2019b; Markinówna, 1935; Rzepa, 1991); these can be regarded as twin theories despite coming from a completely different intellectual tradition.13

3.2

 he Striving for Knowledge and Meaning T as a Striving for a Sense of Power

In light of the theory of cratism, Socrates’ aims and aspirations have a deeper motivation. Behind the lofty pursuit of truth, there is a slightly different face, a different personality.14 Witwicki primarily sees manifestations of ambition in Socrates’ actions and in his philosophical activity, which motivates him to gain cognition and knowledge about himself in order to be able to overcome his own weaknesses and passions. Socrates wants to go beyond his carnality, beyond all intellectual and social  These conclusions were close to the results of the introspective research conducted at the Dorpat School of the Psychology of Religion by Werner Gruehn and Karl Girgensohn (Wulff, 1985). 12  The psychobiographies of Jesus and Socrates are good examples of such differentiated ways of pursuing a sense of power. The different way in which the cratic motivation is realised can be assessed in the context of the peculiarities of Semitic (theocratic) and Greek (‘democratic’) culture (Citlak, 2019a, 2021a). 13  According to Adler, the striving for a sense of power (Machtstreben) arises from the need to overcome the sense of inferiority that arises in the childhood experiences of every human being. Witwicki treats the striving for a sense of power as an instinct, and the feeling of inferiority as a result of the restriction/inhibition of this striving. 14  The image of Socrates described in the following section in some places coincides with the description presented by me in the Polish publication (Citlak, 2016a). 11

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limitations in order to gain control over himself. He is driven by ambition and a striving for power. As Witwicki wrote in his comments to the Symposium, Socrates “does not expose anything that is boiling inside him, this is an ambitious beast (…) he abhorred the sight of a glutton and a debauchee, or any man who bows his neck (…) to his own passions. He needed a sense of power so much that in his own eyes he felt insulted by his own young desires (…) bursting inside him, and which used to possess his soul” (Witwicki, 1999a, pp. 12–13). His moral aspirations are at the service of psychological forces, in this case, at the service of the cratic instinct that is universal to every human being. This desire is so strong in Socrates that it leads him to renounce natural, youthful instincts and bodily desires. Ambition attributed to Socrates is understood in a similar manner as in Witwicki’s doctoral dissertation from 1900, as a socially desirable striving for self-control and as striving for a sense of power/superiority over other people: “it is a need for power, for strength, for superiority over the surroundings and over one’s own drives. He was not impressed by anything; he would not tolerate anyone’s moral superiority, anyone’s nimbus of seriousness” (Witwicki, 1999a, p. 13). Plato‘s Socrates depicted in the Dialogues is, according to the Polish psychologist, a man of intellectual superiority over his peers. In the light of ethical intellectualism, a direct consequence of such superiority is his sense of moral superiority. The method he uses to discover the truth and the manner in which he conducts his disputes provide the insight into certain features of Socrates’ personality, which not only fit perfectly into the cratic portrayal of his character but are also not consistent with ethical intellectualism and raise doubts about his philosophical-ethical aspirations. The Dialogues present, in fact, two layers of the same personality. On the one hand, every disputation officially aims to discover the truth or the meaning of great ideas (goodness, justice, etc.). On the other hand, the purpose of a disputation is very often simply to defeat the opponent. Socrates repeatedly humiliates his adversary, publicly ridicules them, mocks or taunts them, and noticing someone’s mistakes, starts a game with them that is supposed to lead to a painful feeling of incompetence and embarrassment. The awareness of intellectual victory and humiliation of the adversary evidently derive him pleasure. According to comments by Witwicki “Agathon is lost, anxious about the purpose of the

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dialogue (…) he is at the verge of despair. He will agree to anything if Socrates leaves him alone. He is very poor at this moment and must be ashamed. Agathon is defeated, the rest of the companions are looking on with their tails tucked (…) Socrates no longer has the need to fight anyone. Indeed, now he is on top and satisfied” (Witwicki, 1999a, pp. 65–66). Of course, this can be explained by the activity of the daimonion, which gave Socrates a sign that the adversary does not want to know the truth, but from a psychological point of view, such an explanation seems unnecessary. Witwicki argues that clearly there is another face of Socrates—the true face that is cleverly hidden behind the facade of morality and truth. Such behaviour stemmed from a psychological desire to be above others, to provide him with a sense of power and superiority. As Witwicki claims “this was an irresistible need, this taming and capturing of those who tried to impress Socrates and others” (Witwicki, 1999a, p. 16). Socrates thus presented his own greatness at the expense of others. Witwicki said of him that he “pretended to be stupid”, he is “a man of two faces” (Witwicki, 1999a, pp. 12–15). A particular example of Socrates’ cratic motivation can be his attitude to death. Having been sentenced to death for scorning the youth and atheism, he does not take the chance to escape or exchange the punishment (for exile). He accepts the verdict, drinks hemlock without hesitation and, full of “stoic calm”, not only awaits his impending death but also rebukes his grieving friends for their lack of composure. Moreover, during his trial, especially in his defence speech, the sense of his superiority over the judges and the crowd around him is also apparent. Socrates is beyond adversity, beyond opponents and even beyond social condemnation and rejection. And most importantly, he is beyond his own fear of death and beyond his desire to live. According to Witwicki, Socrates did not escape from prison because of his ambition, “his main spiritual spring” (Witwicki, 1999b, p. 589). This is presented in a similar manner in the comments to the dialogue Crito: “he will not get out of prison. He will not come out, because he might suffer the humiliation of exile. He will not come out, because he would not be able to walk without the Apollonian wreath on his head or bow his head to escape (…) Ambition kept him in prison, ambition towards himself and towards the public.

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His grief for his children came second” (Witwicki, 1999b, p. 607). He is driven by “a sense of self-respect and noble pride” (ibid., p. 605). Socrates remained faithful to the image of a philosopher he created, who is in control of themselves and has a sense of superiority. But such a self-image, maintained over many years, was very costly. It created strong internal tensions in which the two personalities clashed. Plato in the Dialogues and Aristophanes in The Clouds depict Socrates, whose physical appearance contradicted the conviction that he was an attractive person: bulging eyes, barefoot, scruffy clothes, dishevelled hair, thick lips, a crooked nose and a big head. Thus, Witwicki emphasises that his exceptional intellectual abilities, constituted the main (only) way to ensure his respect and domination, and at the same time, gave a deep psychological sense to his philosophical activity. “Socrates towered above those around him only in intellectual capacity. This quality of his was universally valued and only in this way did he elicit the bow from friends and enemies alike” (Witwicki, 1999c, p. 145). Conversations, dialogues, seeking the good and the beauty while humiliating or pointing out the incompetence of others, provided Socrates with authority but at the same time forced him to play a certain social role. And although Witwicki does not discuss Socrates’ defence mechanisms, it seems reasonable to assume that one of the key mechanisms guiding his life could be “psychoanalytic compensation as a defence mechanism of personality. There would also be sublimation, usually accompanying this mechanism, recognised by Freud as a basic mechanism of creativity” (Rzepa, 2002, pp. 96–97). In the end, Socrates appears as a contradictory character, in whom mental forces that have not been explicitly expressed accumulate. This problem is aptly described by Teresa Rzepa, a Polish researcher into Witwicki’s psychology. She writes, “the essence of the inner conflict (…) is based on the contradiction between artistic creativity and inspiration as its basis and the search for truth based on the logic of reason (…) To repress one of the two opposing drives, Socrates adopts a distanced attitude towards the ‘I the artist’. And so, he hid everything that he thought was worthless in him, like impulses of the heart towards any matter, thing or person. Putting on a mask was exactly that. The apparent creation of the image of a sage deprived of feelings, emotions and artistic abilities—of all the throbbing of the heart” (Rzepa, 2002, pp. 102–104).

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This is an important remark, as it not only reflects the consequences of the cratic motivation in the life of the Greek philosopher but also makes it possible to notice the similarity to the main psychological mechanism that may have dominated the life and work of Leonardo da Vinci. According to Freud, Leonardo did not fully accept or officially express his homosexual desires, formed in the tangle of his complex relationship with his mother. He expressed them only in a hidden, symbolic way, through his art. Nevertheless, his great passion for painting remained under his control for most of his life, and he never gave it a chance to fully flourish. He never finished his paintings, always seeing imperfections or flaws in them. Finally, according to Freud, he devoted all his creative energy mainly to science, inventions, and technology. He constructed machines and devices that were many years ahead of his time. In this way, the art based on the expressiveness of inner experiences, requiring a relationship with the artist’s own self and emotions, was placed in the background. “He managed to tame his feelings, subject them to research, and limit his freedom of expression” (Freud, 1910/2019, p. 261).15 Leonardo’s sexual desires, the deep realm of the self, withdrew “through sublimation into a desire for knowledge” (p. 283).16 In the case of Socrates, despite surrendering to the mighty power of reason, he remains a flesh-and-blood man, a person who cannot deny his own nature. “His work on himself succeeded to a certain extent, but to succeed completely, he would have to cease to be human” (Witwicki, 1999b, p. 595). Thus, he ultimately “denies his human nature”, he is a man who “cannot live without a mask” (Witwicki, 1999a, p. 20). It can be said that he is guided by a positive cratism in relation to himself and also in relation to others, provided that they were ready to submit to his majeutic method and discover what is true at his discretion. Otherwise, he was driven by a negative cratism that leads to the humiliation of others, providing him with a sense of psychological power and superiority.  “His infantile past had obtained control over him. The investigation, however, which now took the place of his artistic production, seems to have born certain traits which betrayed the activity of unconscious impulses; this was seen in his insatiability, his regardless obstinacy, and in his lack of ability to adjust himself to actual conditions” (Freud, 1910/2019, p. 78). 16  Freud attributes it primarily to repression, fixation and sublimation as the dominant defence mechanisms. 15

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Summary

Qualitative psychology received particular attention in the Lvov-Warsaw School. This was mainly due to the close connection with Brentano‘s psychology of acts, and partly due to the interest in Husserl‘s phenomenology. This had a direct impact on the development of a methodology based on introspection (innere Wahrnehmung), and to a lesser extent, on measurement and experiment. Among the many works by Twardowski and his students, introspective research, phenomenological analysis of psychic phenomena and analytical approaches prevail. The theoretical foundations created by Brentano and later Twardowski also created the possibility of developing cultural-historical psychology, focusing on the study of expression and mental products in the form of diaries, chronicles, or works of art. This also provided ideal conditions for the development of psychobiographies. The first of these, the psychobiography of Socrates, which dates back to 1909, was written on the basis of a psychological interpretation of ancient documents, that is, Plato‘s Dialogues. The second—the psychobiography of Jesus of Nazareth, written in 1941, published in 1958—was based on an analysis of the Gospel. The two are cratic psychobiographies, based on the theory of striving for a sense of power, comparable to the theory of A. Adler. In the history of research on psychobiography, this is a significant achievement, all the more so because Socrates’ psychobiography appeared just before L. da Vinci‘s psychobiography written by Freud in 1910; it also makes it possible to look at the problem of meaning-making in the light of the theory of the striving for a sense of power. I think that in the history of psychobiography this is an original and lasting achievement of one of the schools of European psychology.

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4 Exploring Non-Verbal Communication and Body Language in Creating a Meaningful Life: Angela Merkel in Psychobiography Ulrich Sollmann and Claude-Hélène Mayer

Always be more than you appear and never appear to be more than you are. —Angela Merkel

1

Introduction

Psychobiographical studies have in the past often been based on psychoanalytical traditions which evaluate the life or specific episodes in lives and their meaningfulness, based on psychological theories which take cognitive-emotional development into consideration (Schultz, 2005; Mayer & Kovary, 2019). The research subjects have usually been male and anchored in Western contexts (Wegner, 2020). This focus on

U. Sollmann Shanghai University of Political Science and Law (SHUPL), Shanghai, China Sino-German Academy of Psychotherapy, Bochum, Germany e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 C.-H. Mayer et al. (eds.), Psychobiographical Illustrations on Meaning and Identity in Sociocultural Contexts, Sociocultural Psychology of the Lifecourse, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81238-6_4

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extraordinary white Western men has been criticised previously (van Niekerk & Fouché, 2010). The present chapter contributes new and original insights into meaning-making in the life of an extraordinary woman leader. The study on which this chapter is based aims to make a difference in the tradition of psychobiographical research. First, it uses a psychological theoretical background which is anchored in a psychoanalytic and at the same time bioenergetic-analytic tradition (Lowen, 2008; Sollmann, 1984), expanding a purely psychoanalytic view often used in psychobiography. It shifts the focus from analysis of the lived experience and development of behaviour, attitudes, values, thought styles and description of life episodes, to an analysis of the non-verbal and medially represented image and behaviour patterns. It primarily analyses the body language of the subject. Second, this chapter focuses on an extraordinary female political leader, the German chancellor from 2005 to 2021, Dr Angela Merkel by feeding into psychobiographical contemporary research on political leaders (Elovitz, 2016; McAdams, 2020). It is a psychobiographical work which contributes to political psychology (Kertzer & Tingley, 2018), requiring the psychobiographer to take a self-reflexive stand since the psychobiographical view on contemporary political leaders is challenging (Elovitz, 2016). Third, the study uses the boundaries of traditional management, leadership and psychobiographies which have left women leaders under-­ represented on a global scale (Amaechi, 2020; Doubell & Struwig, 2014; Sueda et al., 2020). In previous years, researchers have called for increased women leadership in specific regions and on global levels (Hingston, 2016). Sharma (2016) has emphasised the need for psychobiography to take a closer look at itself in the context of globalisation and cross-­cultural

C.-H. Mayer (*) Department of Industrial Psychology and People Management, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa Kulturwissenschaftliche Fakultät, Europa Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany

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contexts, supported by the expression of a growing need to explore the life of women leaders from psychobiographical perspectives across and beyond selected cultural contexts (Mayer & Kelley, 2021 submitted; Mayer et al., 2020; Prenter, 2015). The study responds to the research questions: “How do the non-verbal aspects and the body language of Angela Merkel create meaning in her life across the lifespan?” and “Which embodied patterns of reaction and behaviour are activated under stress?”.

2

 heories on Non-Verbal Communication, T Body Language and Adult Observation

Body language and non-verbal behaviour are the source of regulation of communication and interaction (Trautmann-Voigt, 2009). People react unconsciously in and to these patterns of movement, expression and behaviour without further self-reflection. However, studies have shown that experts are more accurate than non-experts in their judgements regarding human non-verbal behaviour patterns and adult observation. The analysis of movement, expression, reaction, and behaviour patterns allows interactive access to the body image, which in turn allows conclusions about the subjective organisation of experience, self-­ perception and orientation/behaviour in the world. The practice and development of the concept of adult observation (Sollmann, 2006, 2017) found its first application in an analysis of the media scenario of the relationship patterns of tennis player Steffi Graf and her father (Sollmann, 1995), describing the relationship of daughter and father with reference to their biographical background. Through this analysis, the draft of an understanding of the specific and action-relevant meanings of biographically shaped behaviour patterns was achieved (Altmann et al., 2021). In 1999, all the members of the then German Red-Green federal government were analysed according to the interplay of biographically shaped behavioural and impact patterns and media scenarios (Sollmann, 1999a, b). In the following years, politicians such as Obama, Putin, Ma Yun (Sollmann, 2016), Wen Jiabao, Trump, and Merkel in dialogue with Xi Jinping were analysed.

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Adult observation in politics focuses on the interaction of persons and their politics. For instance, the former American president Reagan said himself that he was the best actor of a president (Frey, 1999), while English Prime Minister Blair was one of the first international politicians to give politics a personal face by opening up his private life (Blair, 2010). The Austrian Haider used the political milieu to stage himself and his right-wing populist views in specific milieus (Ottomeyer, 2009), and as “media chancellor”, former German chancellor Schröder helped politicians to make an impact through media presence. Politics are therefore closely linked to the people who act. Four aspects of politics are party, programme, person and political power (Sollmann, 1999a, b) which are expressed through the face of the politician who embodies this power and communicates the party’s content, creating meaning. Body language constitutes a central area of personal experience, of communicative events and of human development and is an interaction of general human characteristics, experience, personal peculiarities, and behavioural patterns. It is a language in itself. Bodily expression can be trained and it might have an influence on identity development (Lowen, 2008). Body expression indicates how someone stands in the world, how they react to their circumstances and how they have formed their personality. Therefore, in the personality structure, central biographical experiences and conflicts are, so to speak, preserved, engraved, embodied and become visible later in life. However, a personality model is not an image of a person, but a description of recurring experiences and patterns of action. Especially under stress, in conflicts and in crises, individuals unconsciously regress to early biographical experiences and patterns. They then serve as the best possible pattern in the sense of a survival mechanism ( ). Usually, these patterns do not change and are activated under stress and high pressure.

3

Women in Leadership and Psychobiography

With the ground-breaking work The Seasons of a Woman’s Life of Levinson (1996), an important foundation was built to take deeper insight into the meaning-making of women across their lifespan, taking feelings,

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conflicts, dreams and psychological upheaval into account. More than a decade later, Ball and Rutherford (2008) explored the life and work of exceptional women from a psychobiographical perspective. Based on the pioneering research of Levinson, psychobiographies of men were published, such as those by Fouché et al. (2017). Psychobiographical research on women’s lives and work increased during the past years, taking a focus on extraordinary women who were, for example, involved in political struggles in selected sociocultural contexts (Baatjies, 2015; Harisuker, 2016; Panelatti, 2018). Other studies have focused on female actresses such as Charlize Theron (Prenter, 2015), or female writers such as Maya Angelou (de Waal, 2020). However, very few studies have viewed women leaders in the global international political arena from a psychobiographical perspective. A few authors have focused on Hillary Clinton as a global woman leader (Elovitz, 2016; Sharma, 2016; Mutuku, 2018), and researchers have called for a deeper focus in the area (Hingston, 2016; Sharma, 2016; Mayer, 2021). No other known psychobiographical studies so far have focused on non-­ verbal or body-orientated theories and their use in the analysis of the individual. Merkel has previously been described from psychobiographical perspectives with regard to her creativity (Mayer & van Niekerk, 2020), her wellness (Mayer et al., 2020), and her faith (Mayer, 2021). This chapter expands on the previous psychobiographical accounts by taking the non-­ verbal and body language into consideration.

4

Research Methodology

As a young discipline in psychological research traditions, psychobiographical research has undergone drastic changes from rather psychoanalytical research approaches towards a multifold use of psychological theories (Mayer & Kovary, 2019). For this study, researchers used a hermeneutical single case study design for psychobiography (Fouché et al., 2017) with a particular aim to describe, analyse and interpret the non-verbal communication and body language of Angela Merkel during selected episodes in her lifetime. This

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study is essentially grounded in identifying and understanding Merkel’s patterns of reactions and behaviours. Based on the aforementioned, meaning in the life of the subject of research is recreated to display new and original findings in the light of psychobiographical theory (Fouché & van Niekerk, 2010).

4.1

Sample

The subject of research is the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, one of the German, European and global leaders of contemporary times (Die ZEIT, 2021). She was purposefully sampled (Musarrat Shaheen & Pradhan, 2019), based on the sampling criterion to analyse a female political leader from a psychobiographical perspective (Wegner, 2020) to provide insights from and guidance for future female leaders and to respond to the question of how to create a meaningful life from a specifically chosen theoretical perspective. This research study can therefore provide an example of human development (Basson, 2020).

4.2

Data Collection and Analysis

Data on Angela Merkel were collected through primary sources (autobiographical accounts, images, interviews) and secondary sources (biographical accounts, magazine and newspaper articles, videos, biographies, and images) according to Allport’s (1961) tradition. Previous psychobiographical research on Merkel (Mayer, 2021; Mayer & van Niekerk, 2020; Mayer et al., 2020) was taken into consideration, together with previous studies of her non-verbal communication and body language (Sollmann, 1997). Data were collected and analysed through adult observation and content analysis based on the five-step process of Terre Blanche et al. (2006) which involves familiarisation and immersion, inducing themes, coding, elaboration, and finally interpretation and checking. In detail, data are further observed, approved and acknowledged in the following ways:

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• Opinion polling (Forsa Polling Institute, 2003). • Circular feedback by the observed person in relation to the meaningfulness of the results of the analysis as well as of the specific matching (Bauer, 2002). • Specific self-statements of Angela Merkel in literature. • The development and acceptance of the specific concept of adult observation (Sollmann, 2006, 2015, 2017). Bioenergetic analysis of the data (Lowen, 2008; Sollmann, 1999a, b) expresses the integration of experience, thinking, behaviour and understanding of the world. There are five central aspects of bioenergetic analysis: (1) the person has to be regarded as someone who embodies his/her own feelings, thoughts, and actions; (2) the individual dimensions of the personality act on each other as a unit; (3) life is essentially an excitation process; (4) the “grounding” of the person connects the initially specific excitation process with the body, the experience, the behaviour and the relation to the world; (5) the ensemble of biographically acquired experiences acts as a character structure that appears under stress. It is perceptible in the sense of a functional identity on all levels of the personality, as individually expressed by the person. Later in life, these patterns are very resistant to external influences (Altmann et al., 2021). Adult observation (Sollmann, 2006) as a research methodology in the political arena is a concept and an instrument for systematically recording and analysing the interplay between the person and political behavioural patterns, relating it to the specific context, and identifying implications for change. Adult observation deals with movement, posture, facial expressions and gestures in the media presentation of politicians. Movement sequences contain information about the identity, age and gender of the actor, about intentions and state of mind or health. They play a central role in recognition and a few characteristic, distinctive points are enough for the brain to convey the identity of the person (Lischke, 2002). Insofar adult observation is a diversification of infant observation. (Rustin, 2006).

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 uality Criteria, Ethical Considerations Q and Limitations

Quality criteria in this qualitative research were applied to ensure rigor and trustworthiness (Lincoln & Guba, 1985) and data were reported in a qualitative reporting style (Yin, 2018). The researchers followed ethical considerations to conduct research in an ethical, empathetic, accountable, respectful and benevolent manner with regard to the subject of research, her friends and family (Elms, 1994; Ponterotto, 2017). No private data sets were accessed so as not to violate any private boundaries (Ponterotto, 2015). The study is limited to the in-depth analysis of Angela Merkel from a selected theoretical and methodological standpoint and provides in-­ depth, but no generalisable findings.

5

Findings and Discussion

Findings show that Angela Merkel’s body language behaviour on the political stage can be divided into three phases. In the beginning, she appeared uncertain in the political arena. This was followed by a phase of emphasised, calm and unspectacular self-assurance or self-assertion. Finally, the period since 2009 is particularly characterised by Merkel’s trademark hand gesture. This gesture, often described and symbolised as Merkel’s “rhombus”, reflects Merkel’s sovereignty in global political affairs (Hamburger Abendblatt, 2009). In the following, selected scenarios are presented and interpreted.

5.1

“ One mistake is to treat people too confidentially”1

In the 1990s shortly after the fall of communism, Merkel appeared uncertain, awkward and almost like a girl in her spontaneous expression  Angela Merkel in Koelbl, 1999, p. 60.

1

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on the political stage. Her clothes, her hairstyle and behaviour were atypical of the political arena. Her clothes resembled those of a country girl (Sollmann, 2002). Her haircut did not correspond to the fashion of that time. Under pressure at a press conference, she appeared not to know where or how to stand, sit or where to go. When someone such as then-­ Chancellor Kohl or Minister Blüm, wanted to take her to a particular place, it seemed as if these men pushed her back and forth without being able to move independently or on her own initiative. Merkel smiled kindly but also embarrassedly, blushing in the process (Sollmann, 2002). She clapped her hands as children do. Adults clap differently, in such a way that the slightly rounded palms touch each other with a more muffled sound. The fingers are curled. Merkel’s fingers, on the other hand, remain spread and extended, while the whole of her palms clap against each other with a different sound. When she stood at the lectern, delivering an engaging speech whose meaning she wanted to support with her gestures, Merkel surprisingly moved only her forearms and her hands, gesticulating strongly. She remained slightly bent forward; her upper arms close to her torso and her shoulders holding back any further movement. The intensity of the movement of her forearms, however, mirrored an intense impulsiveness within, which was not expressed with her whole body. She held herself back internally, and this was clearly visible externally. In a particularly intense moment, she was very engaged and did not think herself under observation; then she played with her lips. These made a sucking movement, as children often do. One could almost see the pressure, the tension she was under at that moment.

5.2

“I am a movement idiot”2

From the early 2000s, Merkel began to speak more emphatically. Her movements, when standing at the lectern, were just as energetic as before, and yet she now clearly began to support, to reinforce what she said with an energetic nod of the head. She showed far more initiative and it seemed  Translated from German: “Ich bin ein Bewegungsidiot”, Angela Merkel in Koelbl, 1999, 52.

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as if she was putting an end to the time when “she let herself be done with everything”, “when others did with her what they wanted”. Merkel visibly changed her hairstyle and the style of her clothes. Her growing self-confidence allowed her to choose striking blazer colours that immediately caught the eye like a highlighter. She began to approach people in a clearly visible, self-confident, purposeful, spontaneous, “normal” way. Her gait, however, seemed clumsy, awkward and unsteady. One could almost get the impression that she had a walking defect. Later, in an interview, she described herself as “a movement idiot”. (Koelbl, 1999). When handed a bouquet of flowers, she tilted her head and upper body slightly forward, as if she were hiding. When she did not think she was being watched, or if the camera’s gaze caught her by surprise, one could discover a smiling, radiant, almost flirtatious Merkel. Through her charming smile, she showed an unexpected side. Then she was lively and spontaneous, shining in the direct dialogical exchange with her counterpart. Her quick wit and humour could spontaneously inspire an entire auditorium of listeners.

5.3

“ Everyone notices when I’m not myself” (Angela Merkel)

In 2009, another phase of body language behaviour began, primarily and obviously characterised by a particular hand gesture. This gesture, also known as the “Merkel rhombus”, appears spontaneously every time the chancellor enters a public space, when journalists address her or when the cameras are pointed at her. She puts her fingertips together in such a way that the index fingers and thumbs create a rhombus-like structure. She does this with elegance and ease, as if this has always been a natural body movement. For a long time, people puzzled over how this gesture came about. A possible explanation is that a physiotherapist may have recommended the gesture to Merkel to allow her to concentrate and collect herself in times of tension, giving the effect of certain Eastern meditation gestures. Merkel seeks and needs structure, support and security. By holding her hands in this position, especially when under stress, she gives herself this support.

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In 2005 and 2009, an interactive internet project (www.charismakurve.de; Sollmann, 2005) took place in which Merkel and the opposing candidate were observed, analysed and evaluated in terms of their non-­ verbal impact and their body language. Before the photo session, the photographers had to specify exactly how, when, where and in which pose they wanted to shoot Merkel. If the photographers wanted to change something on the spot owing to spontaneous changes in light, this was not allowed. The previously agreed structure of the procedure had to be adhered to—otherwise Merkel would quit the shooting. At the relationship level, Merkel shows a similar tendency: she feels emotionally safe in clear or fixed structures when conducting political business. In the chancellor’s office she includes only a few trusted people who, once they have gained her trust, remain in that position for a very long time.

5.4

“ In politics, I prefer to seek cooperation rather than confrontation”3

In general, Merkel had come across as a likeable though unspectacular person. Therefore she caused great surprise when she convincingly and courageously dissociated herself from former Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Kohl had previously been very supportive of Merkel’s political career, always referring to her as “my girl”. Indeed, until her emphatic break from Kohl, she had also appeared to be more like a girl. Her subsequent behaviour, as described in the media, was tantamount to a liberating blow for her self-awareness. When Merkel was elected leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in 2000, the party was heavily divided and threatened to break up. During this time, Merkel attended various regional CDU conferences and appeared quite unexciting to the media public. But surprisingly, after a year, the CDU as a party stood stronger and more unified than before. Instead of asking in detail about Merkel’s recipe for success, the media began to take an interest in her communication and integration skills.  Angela Merkel in Koelbl, 1999, p. 48.

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“I only slowly learned to play poker”4

In the 2005 Bundestag election campaign, which she won in a neck-and-­ neck race against her predecessor, Merkel appeared rhetorically and factually confident as well as self-assured, especially in the TV duel when addressed directly. In the non-verbal confrontation with then-Chancellor Schröder, however, one could clearly see her discomfort. Not only did she struggle to cope with the stress, but she was also unable to hide her emotions in this regard. After her election as chancellor in 2005, she did not appear assertive or powerful in the conventional sense to many people, especially the media, during the first few years. She was compared to her male predecessors. Unlike Kohl and Schröder, Merkel came across as more communicative, with restrained self-control and an interest in relationship-building. She could listen to people and was open to dialogue. Personally and emotionally, she appeared reserved: qualities often attributed to her training as a physicist. Her language was simple, unpretentious and sober. As the first female politician in the country, she came across as rather bland, without any special trappings. As an unspectacular power politician, she was therefore “not taken seriously enough”.

5.6

“I can only rely on myself”5

Behind the scenes however, almost in silence, she appears as a successful, strategically level-headed power politician. She did not make her strategies known as she worked through facts, decisions and results. Here is a significant example: in earlier years, a group of powerful male politicians (Merz, Koch, Oettinger and others) had joined forces in a concerted effort to oppose Merkel. Without engaging in a vociferous public power struggle, Merkel defeated these politicians from her immediate circle in 2002. From then onwards, these politicians have been unable to threaten her again.  Angela Merkel in Koelbl, 1999, p. 56.  Angela Merkel in Koelbl, 1999, 53.

4 5

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Merkel is a proven, steadfast, successful, strategic and smart politician with enormous “silent” staying power. This seems to be a special talent in negotiations, in dealing with international conflicts and crises. After days of extremely tough negotiations, as often happens at the EU level, she can continue to appear competent the next morning, after only a few hours of sleep. At the same time, she remains calm and relaxed. Many other politicians, even if they are very experienced in this respect, would either not be able to hold out against such a marathon of negotiations, or their exhaustion would be clearly visible. She has the ability to continuously cope with great stress.

5.7

“Contact, matching and fitting is vital”6

Merkel is not only highly esteemed internationally and accepted as a respected negotiating partner, but is also able to adjust transculturally to her respective counterpart. She is a master at keeping her own opinion and corresponding points of view emphatically in play without appearing ostentatiously politically “pushy”. Merkel travels to China with various tasks and assignments in her luggage. There is always an additional task demanded by the media and others, namely to emphatically and immediately address the human rights violations in China. Merkel does so, but in her own way. For example, she visited China a few years ago and spent the first day shopping for food in the market with a famous TV chef. She paid with her own money, from her own wallet. Later, in front of a running TV camera, she prepared Mao Tse Tung’s favourite dish together with the chef. During the following days, she held important political talks behind closed doors, finally giving a speech to students at one of the best universities in China. This speech was broadcast live and she clearly, critically and plainly addressed the human rights situation in China. She is able to master her political business without doing what is expected of her. She focuses on an unspectacular, political-communicative matching.

 Angela Merkel in Koelbl, 1999, 56.

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Many believe that Merkel is not a typical power politician; some miss her assertiveness and decisiveness in public. However, she has been the most popular politician in Germany for many years. The last election campaign (2017) was called the “Mutti election campaign”, suggesting that Merkel is like a political mother, sharing a close emotional bond with the citizens. People feel safe, secure, understood and cared for. One of the central messages in the election campaign was therefore the motto “Keep it up”.

5.8

“ My day has to have a structure … otherwise I get panicky because I can’t get things together”7

The coronavirus pandemic shaped the chancellor’s final year in office, particularly the 2020–2021 transition. In the initial lockdown, Merkel underscored her approach with the words: “we are driving on sight” despite all the opposition and hostility, signalling a sense of confidence in the face of great adversity. On one hand, from the fall 2020 onwards, the pandemic worsened sharply and uncontrollably. Country leaders behave almost in a panic. The political situation in Germany has become structureless, bringing on fatigue, attrition and despair, but also erratic rebellion. Merkel seems somewhat withdrawn, powerless, less opinionated and lonely. The currently unpredictable, bizarre atmosphere in Germany characterises the social and political milieu. While some are taking flight, Merkel appears to be powerless and lacking in energy. She knows this personal behaviour pattern all too well. She loses energy to master crises without a secure and confidence-building structure to surround her. Another dynamic makes it difficult for Merkel to gain new strength and regain her vigour. Triggered by the erratic political turmoil in Germany, people and the media are showering her with charges and accusations that seem less substantive than egotistical and devaluing. Both social and media dynamics certainly reactivate Merkel’s old fears of  Angela Merkel in Koelbl, 1999, p. 53.

7

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panicking precisely when structure is lost. Her patterns are biographically shaped and characterised by stress and crisis. Accordingly, she • can communicate, connect people, listen to and moderate groups of people; • proceeds in small steps, is solution-orientated, but is not interested in a hurried decision; • is able to respond to emotions, moods, fluctuations, individual characteristics, subliminal difficulties and tensions in such a way that trust, togetherness and coherence increase; • is able to endure tension, differences and ambivalences without rushing; • values and needs secure, reliable, clear structures in which she lives and operates politically; • can develop sufficient energy, drive and assertiveness on the basis of communication, trust and the supporting structures; • essentially needs a small circle of very familiar and reliable people whom she values and trusts (microstructure); • needs continuity, reliability and fundamental acceptance in the larger circle of people with whom she has to deal politically (macrostructure); • can be personally very reserved and does not depend on or strive to be applauded or cheered in public; • acts and decides spontaneously, directly, decisively and strongly enforces decisions when her core values are affected. The body perspective creates meaning in Merkel’s life because body language shapes and characterises her biography. The more she becomes aware of it, the better she can integrate it into her daily life. Integrating means accepting what she cannot change, such as patterns of experiences and reaction under stress. The following four aspects of body language have meaning for Merkel and for people in general: • The body-self-experience enriches the experience of life, thereby creating meaning.

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• Body language and body expression vitalise one`s own personality expression as well as offer the opportunity of self-development and development of bodily presence. • Awareness of one’s own automatic patterns of bodily reaction support one to sense the limitations of expression. • Knowing about this allows one to realise that it is necessary to improve one’s own stress management instead of trying or forcing oneself to change the non-verbal behaviour under stress. This process of body-self-experience has an important integrating function which supports one’s own resilience and sense and expression of integrity.

6

Conclusions and Recommendations for Theory and Practice

The study contributes to new and original insights into meaning-making in the life of an extraordinary woman leader. It contributes to expanding the psychobiographical theories and foci by focusing on non-verbal communication. Finally, it contributes to research on women leaders at the global level. This chapter responds to two research questions, synthesising what can be analysed from the outside (“other” image) and what is heard from the inside (self-image). There is a convincing matching and congruence to be seen in Merkel’s embodied life from early childhood experiences up to her specific behaviour patterns as a politician. This integrity throughout the lifespan can be referred to as meaningful meaning-making throughout her lifetime. There are some basic patterns of feeling, behaviour and expression which are activated especially under stress (life as a politician is stress). Merkel needs structure and builds structures which offer personal safety and security in the sense of protection. Being aware of this structure helps her to feel trust and bring meaning into challenging situations. She has developed a specific talent for meaningful communication, reaching out

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transculturally to find mutual solutions. She is direct and intuitive when she is in a safe context. Meaningfulness is created in safe spaces. Future research should focus on in-depth analysis of non-verbal behaviour and patterns in contextualised psychobiographic perspectives. Thereby, the interaction and interrelationship of verbal and non-verbal behaviour should be explored. Social and cultural aspects of psychobiographies (Tschacher & Bergomi, 2011; Tschacher et al., 2021) should be taken into consideration when analysing the non-verbal and its meaning for the individual. Verbal and non-verbal behaviour in the context of gender, publicity and politics needs consideration. Successful leadership behaviour, body language and expression of movement should be explored. Psychobiographies need to open up to integrate verbal and non-verbal aspects of analysis, exploring adequate theoretical and methodological approaches from different psychological stances to foster holistic approaches to lifespan research. The study provides practical insights since it offers valuable information for future women leaders to deal with non-verbal and body language in public life. It provides ideas of non-verbal aspects of meaning-making in public figures. The study can be of practical value for public figures, politicians and women leaders to increase their awareness of non-verbal and behavioural patterns, body image and expressions of body movements, mimics and gestures for self-development and individual growth.

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5 A Comparative Psychobiographical Exploration of the Role of Generativity in Meaning Making for Two Women in the Anti-apartheid Movement Barbara Burnell and Carla Nel

1

Introduction

An integrated model of meaning-making (Schnell, 2009, 2011) incorporates generativity as an important potential source of meaning in the form of self-transcendence through a commitment to goals beyond personal needs. The concept of generativity originates from the psychosocial crisis prominent during middle adulthood (Erikson, 1963, 1997). In this phase the individual navigates the conflict between self-absorption on the one hand and the transcendence of their interests through the demonstration of care to others and future generations. Commitment to B. Burnell (*) Independent Scholar, Bloemfontein, South Africa e-mail: [email protected] C. Nel Department of Psychology, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 C.-H. Mayer et al. (eds.), Psychobiographical Illustrations on Meaning and Identity in Sociocultural Contexts, Sociocultural Psychology of the Lifecourse, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81238-6_5

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generativity as a source of meaning has been found to be the strongest predictor of a sense of meaningfulness, particularly linked to “doing or creating things valued beyond one’s death” (Schnell, 2011, 671). Generativity, therefore, provides a useful framework through which the development of meaning during middle adulthood can be explored. However, in his epigenetic developmental model of psychosocial stages, Erikson (Erikson, 1963, 1997) proposed that the achievement of an ego virtue, such as generativity, is highly dependent on the psychosocial development preceding it. Therefore, for the adult’s development to favour generativity, previous psychosocial conflicts should have been successfully integrated for the individual to expand on previous developmental gains. Consequently, examining generativity within an individual’s development can provide insights into the psychosocial underpinnings of a potential source of an individual’s sense of meaning in life. Utilising a comparative approach to psychobiography with subjects from a shared historical period, who seem to demonstrate similarities in their use of generativity in meaning-making, presents an opportunity to uncover similarities and differences regarding the role of generativity and sociocultural context in the meaning-making process. The era of the anti-­ apartheid struggle contains numerous examples of exemplary and highly generative individuals, including “outstanding women figures…, orators or organisers of note” (Sachs, 1989, 145). Two women from vastly different sociocultural contexts, with a shared dedication to the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, were selected for this study. Albertina Nontsikelelo Sisulu (née Thethiwe) (1918–2011), popularly referred to as “The mother of the Nation”, was a nurse, activist and prominent political leader within the anti-apartheid movement. “…Caring was lived by Albertina and formed an important societal part of her being in the enhancement of human dignity and the preservation of humanity. Her passion and sense of responsibility for the sacred duty of caring for others was a defining feature of her life” (Downing & Hastings-Tolsma, 2016, 223). Ruth Heloise First (1925–1982) was a communist, revolutionary, activist, investigative journalist, researcher and teacher who employed her considerable intellectual gifts as a champion of social justice. She was driven by the Marxist maxim ‘understand the world to change it’. “Ruth

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First’s life was essentially a political act and her death, of course, a political act as well of a hideously different kind” (Segal, 1982a, 52). The current study will explore the similarities between these subjects regarding their shared historical period and socio-political objectives, as well as the significant and striking differences between them concerning certain contextual and psychosocial developmental factors. The authors, therefore, aim to highlight the differences and similarities in the subjects’ achievement of meaning against the background of their shared as well as differing contextual and personal factors. By selecting previously unstudied individuals, this article also addresses a frequent criticism against the psychobiographical approach, namely the lack of subject diversity.

2

Methodology

2.1

Subject Sampling and Research Method

The lives of Albertina and Ruth were selected through purposive sampling from a pool of female anti-apartheid activists. Sampling criteria for eugraphic study, as proposed in Burnell et al. (2019) were applied. Firstly, these subjects met the criteria for contextual suitability in terms of socio-­ historical significance and their achievement of eminence. Secondly, the available biographical information was screened for narrative markers of a good life story, such as coherence in structure and content, openness (i.e., the life stories demonstrated sincerity and tolerance for ambiguity) and credibility (i.e., life events were presented with factual accuracy) (McAdams, 1996). Thirdly, the first reading of their life stories revealed potential indicators of generativity and heroism. Finally, the available biographical information also contained features of the prototypical redemptive narrative, in which a protagonist enjoys some form of early advantage, exhibits sensitivity to the plight of others, develops a clear moral framework, transforms negative scenes into positive outcomes and pursues pro-social goals (McAdams & Guo, 2015). These sampling processes confirmed the suitability of Albertina and Ruth as potential

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psychobiographical subjects for the exploration of optimal human functioning. In eugraphic, comparative psychobiography, interactions, and patterns are studied that contribute to exemplary life stories. These morphogenic studies (as opposed to being nomothetic or idiographic) focus on the differences and common elements between subjects and the study of patterns and structures (Runyan, 1983) through serial iteration involving separate data sets and side-by-side comparisons of subjects who share certain common dimensions (Isaacson, 2005). Should the eugraphic psychobiography of a single life be able to illuminate important individual strengths and resiliencies, then a comparative eugraphic study of individuals navigating life during a shared historical context could facilitate an even deeper understanding of the role of generativity within meaning. This would allow a better understanding of extraordinary lives and contributions to society.

2.2

Data Collection

Information on the lives of Albertina and Ruth were identified through the World Wide Web, the EBSCOhost search engine and the information-­ system service provided by the library of the University of the Free State. Primary and secondary sources in the form of autobiographies and biographies relevant to the research were consulted. Other secondary sources included, inter alia, the memoirs of colleagues and peers, memorial addresses, lectures, various published newspaper articles, as well as interviews with or speeches by friends and colleagues. Published journal articles and unpublished postgraduate research from South African university libraries were also retrieved.

2.3

Data Extraction and Analysis

Given the criticisms related to gender bias regarding Erikson’s model (Sorell & Montgomery, 2001) the authors avoided any rigid application of age ranges. Instead, the focus was on life span development and the

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expression of generativity. To this end, information was extracted by differentiating between generativity precursors (which develop in childhood and young adulthood) and generative care (as it develops during middle adulthood) and biographical data for both subjects were arranged into two broad life phases, namely Precursors to Generativity and Generativity as a Source of Meaning.

2.4

Ethical Considerations

The study focused on deceased public figures and had a eugraphic focus with no intention of denigrating the subjects. Additionally, since only publicly available information was utilised in the data collection, there was no foreseeable risk of harm to remaining relatives and associates that sensitive or potentially distressing information would be revealed (Ponterotto & Reynolds, 2017).

3

Findings and Discussion

This section presents the findings regarding the representation of generativity as a potential source of meaning in life for Albertina and Ruth. The findings related to the precursors to generativity as they develop within the first life phase of the subjects are presented first, followed by the adult expressions of the achievement of generative care. The discussion of the similarities and differences pertaining to the developmental trajectories and social contexts between the subjects will be presented throughout this section.

3.1

Life Phase 1: Precursors to Generativity

The resolution of each psychosocial development crisis results in a particular ego virtue or quality (Erikson, 1963, 199) which would serve as indicators of the future potential of generativity during adulthood. The

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following sections include a brief review of the emergence of these ego virtues.

Early Childhood Albertina was the second child born to Bonilizwe and Monica Thethiwe in 1918 in a small village in the rural Eastern Cape, at a time of increasing economic subjugation and political disenfranchisement of Black South Africans (Giliomee & Mbenga, 2007; Sisulu, 2003). She was born healthy despite her mother suffering from the Spanish flu and was therefore named Nontsikelelo, Mother of Blessings. The missionary nurses in attendance insisted that to prevent infection of the infant, she be placed immediately in her maternal grandmother’s care (Sisulu, 2003). Monica experienced chronic poor health and bouts of immobility, resulting in herself and her five children living with her parents during the six months every year when Bonilizwe worked at the Johannesburg gold mines (Sisulu, 2003). The supportive and nurturing extended family system (Sisulu, 2003) buffered young Albertina from the impact of her mother’s ill health and frequent separations from her father. Ruth was born to Julius and Matilda (known as Tilly) First, both Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, in the privileged Northern Suburbs of Johannesburg (Wieder, 2013a). They were left-wing political activists who had replaced religion with communism and helped establish the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) (Milton & Pimstone, 2009; Wieder, 2013a). Sources indicate that Ruth received dedicated care from a white nursemaid from London (Pinnock, 1992). Ruth’s mother was described as tough and severe and not physically very demonstrative, but she adored Ruth. Tilly experienced Ruth as a restless child who needed to be occupied and, subsequently, she began attending kindergarten enthusiastically at the age of four years. In the first year, she started a library for her classmates to encourage reading, or else, as she told her mother, they would not know anything (Pinnock, 1992). She also demonstrated initiative through her sense of independence: When her parents were late in picking her up from kindergarten, Ruth made her way home by tram on her own, only to be met by her astounded parents (who

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had rushed home to the tram stop closest to their home) as she got off the tram (Pinnock, 1992). Available information would suggest that both Albertina and Ruth were raised within supportive environments during their early childhood years and, as a result, developed the ego virtues of hope, will and purpose by resolving the crises trust vs mistrust, autonomy vs guilt and shame and initiative vs guilt, respectively (Erikson, 1963, 1997).

Middle Childhood Albertina received her education at a local Presbyterian missionary school, where she chose Albertina as her Christian name and was baptised (Sisulu, 2003). Her teachers considered her a bright student and her peers viewed her as serious-minded. She also worked with the other women in the fields and tended to her own vegetable patch—the beginning of her lifelong love of gardening (Sisulu, 2003). As the oldest of eight girls in the extended family, her responsibilities also included caregiving and collecting wood (Sisulu, 2003). Her schooling was interrupted after her father’s death to help take care of her new-born sister. Later, she had to stay home again after her youngest sister, who had epilepsy, sustained serious burn injuries. Despite being elected head girl and achieving significant academic success, the interrupted school attendance resulted in a disqualification from the bursary she needed to access secondary schooling (Sisulu, 2003). She was, however, persistent in her efforts (Sisulu, 2001) and the story of her disqualification reached some priests at a local Roman Catholic mission, who then arranged for a four-year scholarship to a prestigious boarding school (Sisulu, 2003). Ruth impressed as a bright and articulate child in class who performed very well and loved reading (Pinnock, 1992; Wieder, 2013a). While Tilly doted on her daughter, Ruth was greatly influenced by her mother’s criticism, who was intolerant of any childlike statement from Ruth (Pinnock, 1992). Additionally, a lifelong thyroid condition was diagnosed at an early age. While better controlled by medication in later years (First, 1989), Ruth suffered terrible bouts of exhaustion and had to find coping strategies in order to keep up with her peers (Pinnock, 1992). Ruth was

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described as insecure (Pinnock, 1992), indicating that Ruth may have had some difficulty resolving the crisis of industry vs inferiority. Her insecurity and self-doubt persisted into adulthood, often mentioned by close adult friends (Pinnock, 1992; Slovo, 2007; Wieder, 2013b). In a later letter to her husband, Joe Slovo,1 she wrote: “My introspection gets more and more involved as I go in for my favourite pastime of undermining me and my character and seeing my faults… Trouble is I would like to prove to myself I can produce something worthwhile” (First, 1989, 10). Both Albertina and Ruth demonstrated the ability to meet the demands of their respective environments, despite Albertina’s interrupted schooling and Ruth’s health challenges and critical mother. While both pursued their educational goals, Ruth’s sense of competence could have remained in a state of continued tension throughout subsequent psychosocial development.

Adolescence and Young Adulthood Albertina had transferred the adolescent need for guidance to mentors and role models outside of the family system, in line with Erikson’s theory (1963, 1997). Mrs Mokonya, who Albertina “admired to the point of hero worship” (Sisulu, 2003, 49), was later credited with imparting to her the importance of maintaining exemplary behaviour in teaching Christian values to others, as well as instilling in young Albertina a desire to have a career (Sisulu, 2003). Albertina also saw herself as mentee of Father Huss at Mariazell College, under whose guidance she converted to Catholicism and selected her future nursing career (Sisulu, 2003). Initially, Albertina wanted to become a nun, however, she soon realised that she would not be able to honour her material obligations towards her younger siblings as a nun. Father Huss helped her resolve this conflict by suggesting to Albertina the practical option of enrolling as a trainee nurse. During her identity formation, Albertina accepted numerous responsibilities which contributed to her continuity of experience of herself as a responsible and  Joe Slovo, a communist deeply involved in anti-apartheid activism, was well known for his work as a defence lawyer in political trials. He was also one of the earliest members of the military arm of the ANC, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) and later became Chief of Staff of MK (Wieder, 2013a). 1

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hardworking person. As a requirement of her board and lodging, she had work in the fields and the laundry room during the school holidays. She resolved not to marry, but to select a career to provide for her family. When she learnt that her uncle had arranged a marriage for her to a young law graduate, she rejected the arrangement, plainly stating: “I had my own plan” (Sisulu, 2003, 56). Ruth was exposed to political discussions within her home as well as to political figures and speakers outside the family as the children accompanied their parents to political meetings to hear communist speakers (Klein, 2006; Pinnock, 1992). Ruth was unlike other girls her age as she developed a social consciousness early and even in her formative years engaged with socially and politically relevant issues (Watson, 2009), joining the Junior Left Book Club2 at the age of 14. She developed a love for reading from an early age and favoured books on South Africa and the Soviet Union. She was described as a brilliant orator, excelling at debating (Pinnock, 1992; Wieder, 2013a). However, she was also just a normal teenage girl, interested in clothes and boys and tasked with navigating a complex and tumultuous relationship with her mother. She and Tilly would have many rows as Ruth attempted to establish an identity separate from her mother (Pinnock, 1992). Data suggest that both Albertina and Ruth were able to resolve the crisis of identity vs role confusion during this stage and the ego virtue of fidelity developed. Available biographical information indicated that Albertina’s sense of identity included themes related to her work ethic, her role as caregiver and provider and her trust in her own abilities to forge her own path independently. Thus, Ruth viewed herself as an engaged and active “revolutionary” (Wieder, 2013b, 2) with a clearly developed world view and ethical framework. Both women would remain faithful to the ideological forces that had shaped their identity development during adolescence—Ruth to her political views and Albertina to her religion and commitment to her values of duty.

 The Junior Left Book Club was a socialist group that had weekly meetings to discuss political books and assigned research on issues of oppression and racism in South Africa and throughout the world (Wieder, 2011). 2

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Albertina enrolled as a trainee nurse at Johannesburg General Hospital in 1940 where she “took to nursing like a duck to water” (Sisulu, 2003, 86). Six months into her training, Albertina was confronted with the consequences of racial segregation. Black accident victims were denied emergency treatment in the white, largely empty section of the hospital, despite the Black medical staff’s pleas. Nursing the injured on the floor of overcrowded wards had a profound effect on Albertina. The denial of medical care based on skin colour conflicted with her ethical sense of the sacred duty of the healthcare worker “to do everything possible to preserve life” (Sisulu, 2003, 87). The following year, she met the politically active Walter Sisulu, who would later become the Secretary-General of the African National Congress (ANC).3 When he proposed marriage, Albertina did not immediately accept. She explained to him that she had assumed responsibility for her younger siblings and vowed that she would make a home for them. Walter agreed to share that responsibility with her (Sisulu, 2001). They shared many similarities in their upbringing and worldview, such as being raised mainly by extended family in the Transkei. “Both had a strong sense of the desire to build a stable home not only for their own children but for the extended family as well. They had a deep love for children and were happy to raise the children of relatives and friends. Walter was generous to a fault… A woman less generous and more materially minded than Albertina would probably have lost all patience with him” (Sisulu, 2004, 102). When they married in 1944, Albertina was warned that her new husband was, through his political commitments, already married to the nation. She assumed a supportive role and, as the only woman present at the inaugural meeting of the ANC Youth League in 1944, Albertina did not intend on becoming a member herself. She was very much the conventional wife and mother in their early marital life, raising their and some relatives’ children (Sisulu, 2003). However, the image of the “smiling and pleasant wife” (Kuzwayo, 1985, 245) serving tea in the background began to change in the 1950s after Walter’s election to the position of Secretary General (Sisulu, 2004). She  The ANC became the dominant force in the anti-apartheid movement, collaborating with other political groups such as the South African Communist Party. Banned for three decades, it operated underground and outside of South Africa until 1990. It became the governing party of South Africa with the 1994 election of Nelson Mandela (Giliomee & Mbenga, 2007). 3

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became the family’s sole breadwinner and, as a strict disciplinarian, earned the nickname Bhubhesi’ (‘Lion’). She was unwavering in her determination to instil a strong work ethic in her children. Albertina also became an increasingly powerful figure in the political arena. Like thousands of other African women, she was drawn into active politics through the Defiance Campaign of 1952, an organised protest during which groups of volunteers across South Africa contravened apartheid laws, such as breaking curfew and using facilities designated for whites only (Sisulu, 2003). After matriculating at Jeppe High School for Girls in 1942, Ruth pursued a social sciences degree at the University of the Witwatersrand (Milton & Pimstone, 2009; Wieder, 2013a), one of the few South African universities that allowed Black students to enrol. Ruth was in daily contact with students from different cultures and political views (Watson, 2009), socialising with fellow students such as Nelson Mandela, Michael Scott, JN Singh, Ahmed Kathrada, Ismael Meer with whom she had a very close relationship and dated for four years and Joe Slovo, whom she later married (Pinnock, 1992; Slovo, 2007; Watson, 2009; Wieder, 2013a). Throughout her life, Ruth demonstrated “enormous capacity for friendship” (Segal, 1982a, 54). In 1949 Ruth married Joe Slovo (already a successful advocate) and over the next few years, had three daughters, Shawn, Gillian and Robyn (Klein, 2006; Slovo, 2007). “The bomb that killed Ruth put an end to a marriage which full of conflict and passions lasted more than thirty-two years” (Slovo, 2007, 29). The collected data indicate that both Ruth and Albertina were able to successfully resolve the crisis between intimacy vs isolation during their young adulthood years and, therefore, both developed the ego virtue of love. Therefore, in terms of the ego strengths of hope, will, purpose, competence, fidelity and love, all developmental precursors of adult generativity developed.

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L ife Phase 2: Generativity as a Source of Meaning

The indicators for the successful development of generativity during middle adulthood (Burnell et al., 2019) based on the work of Erikson (1963, 1997) were applied as a framework to explore the generative expressions of both Albertina and Ruth. This section provides an overview of different aspects of generativity.

Expansion of Ego Interests Erikson (1963, 258) described the hallmark of healthy adult development as “the ability to lose oneself in the meeting of bodies and minds leads to a gradual expansion of ego-interests and to a libidinal investment in that which is being generated”. Data on Albertina and Ruth indicate that both demonstrated such an expected expansion during their adult development. Albertina’s interests soon expanded to caring for a large family and actively participating in political activities as she progressively dedicated more of her life to the anti-apartheid struggle (Kuzwayo, 1985; Sisulu, 2003, 2004). An abiding concern remained the plight of women and children in particular (McGregor, 2011). When Ruth left Wits and entered the political arena as a journalist for The Guardian newspaper, she dedicated herself to expose all the brutality and inhumanity of the apartheid system, from the pass laws to the migrant labour system (Pinnock, 1992). Ruth was determined and driven to understand the world in order to change it (Kasrils, 2020). As she once expressed: “I became a communist because it was the only organisation known to me in South Africa that advocated meaningful changes. And because it wasn’t just a policy but something positive. They wanted to do something. They were immersed in the struggle for equality” (Wieder, 2011, 89). Once in exile in the United Kingdom, she became a public activist, and her interests increased to include the liberation struggle and social issues of other African countries (Kasrils, 2020; Watson, 2009).

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Adherence to Irreversible Obligations The adult’s ability to overcome any ambivalence inherent in adhering to irreversible obligations (Stevens, 2008) can indicate the development of care as an ego strength resulting from their resistance against stagnation during adulthood. For both women, the data suggested adherence to commitments regarding the anti-apartheid struggle and the obligations inherent in their other life roles. Albertina was described as being generous to a fault as she demonstrated great sacrifice and self-discipline in her dedication to the health and wellbeing of those she loved (Sisulu, 2003). She continued working as a nurse, allowing her to support her children, as well as extended family members (Sisulu, 2003). She demonstrated remarkable stamina in her continued activism, despite the risks to her safety and the costs to herself and her family, including periods of detention, banning orders, and the lengthy imprisonment of her husband (Sisulu, 2003). Albertina worked tirelessly to improve the health, education and welfare of others during times of great burden and suffering (Downing & Hastings-Tolsma, 2016). The most difficult for her to bear was the persecution of her children. Max was forced into exile at the age of 17, Lindiwe endured repeated detentions and torture, eventually fleeing South Africa and Zwelakhe, was detained, tortured and banned. Each detention caused Albertina dreadful anxiety, particularly after her nephew died in custody (McGregor, 2011). Similarly, Ruth never wavered in her political commitments: “She was unswervingly loyal” (Segal, 1982a, 54) and “devoted above all else, to the cause of freedom in South Africa” (Segal, 1982b, 30). Due to her activism, Ruth also faced banning orders, persecution and detention by the Security Police, while she lived in South Africa at great personal and emotional cost to her and her family (First, 1989; Slovo, 2007). Her second arrest occurred on the sidewalk outside the prison minutes after her release from the first detention. This event left Ruth hopeless and severely depressed. She attempted suicide by taking a phial of sleeping pills that had been left in her cell inadvertently but failed in the attempt (First, 1989). Ruth remained committed to social justice as a writer and speaker throughout her life (Wieder, 2011), even once exiled to the UK and later settling in Mozambique (Slovo, 2007).

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The Apartheid government orchestrated her assassination on 17 August 1982. She opened a letter bomb sent to her office in Mozambique at the Centre for African Studies (Kasrils, 2020; Segal, 1982b). That horrific act also ended a thirty-two-year marriage (Slovo, 2007).

Support of Psychosocial Development of Others Generativity is expressed in the shift that takes place in an individual’s focus away from themselves towards the teaching, guidance and encouragement of others, particularly younger protégés or children (Graves & Larkin, 2006) and reflects the adult’s capacity to give care without expectations of any return (Stevens, 2008). Biographical data indicates that both subjects maintained such a degree of involvement with others. Albertina appreciated education and worked to further the education of those she loved (Sisulu, 2003). Her Soweto home had an immaculate garden, which supported a determination and generosity to feed every visitor (Sisulu, 2003), with such an act of nurturance becoming an apt metaphor for her approach to life. Albertina would earn the title as “Mother of the Nation” as she aimed to nurture others to actualise themselves (Downing & Hastings-Tolsma, 2016). Albertina also began working in Soweto as a midwife-nurse with Dr Abu Baker Asvat, a physician and anti-apartheid activist, with whom she had a mother-son type relationship (Downing & Hastings-Tolsma, 2016; Sisulu, 2003). Ruth often took a mentoring and guiding role with young people throughout her life, such as young journalists when she worked at The Guardian (Wieder, 2013b) and the students and young researchers later in her life. Ruth had a powerful impact on the students and others she mentored, and they acknowledged that she mentored and nurtured them intensely at times and gently at others (Wieder, 2011).

Concern for Future Generations Generative concern is expressed during adulthood through the processes of procreation, productivity and creativity (Erikson, 1997) as the

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individual becomes involved in civic and community causes through nurturing, mentoring or contributing activities (Freiberg, 1987) for society’s benefit and the promotion of its continuity from one generation to the next (McAdams et al., 1993). Data suggested that both Albertina and Ruth demonstrated a generative concern for future generations. Albertina and her husband shared a passion for engaging with a vast network of people from different racial, ethnic and political backgrounds and mentored several generations of political activists (Sisulu, 2004). Albertina was convinced of the need to risk oneself for the pursuit of justice and liberation, and she firmly believed that women were vital to creating social and political change for the benefit of future generations (Downing & Hastings-Tolsma, 2016). During Ruth’s 117-day incarceration and interrogation, the Security Branch alluded to arresting her mother, Tilly. This left Ruth extremely anxious about what would become of her three daughters if their grandmother was also arrested since their father and grandfather had already fled to the UK (First, 1989). One may speculate that a large contributing factor to Ruth leaving the country on an exit visa with her daughters was her concern for their safety and well-being since Ruth knew the Security Branch “…would come again” (First, 1989:, 150). In the aftermath of her death, Ruth’s daughter remarks how acutely the family felt her absence: “…our mother … the capable one holding us together. Old rivalries, old problems jostled but couldn’t surface. How could they, without her there to arbitrate?” (Slovo, 2007, 22). In a broader sense than concern for her own children, Ruth continued to oppose the system that eroded the human rights of the Black population, which included many generations, in South Africa at great personal cost (Watson, 2009). To this end, her work on the drafting committee of the ANC’s Freedom Charter is significant even though she was unable to attend its presentation at the 1955 gathering in Kliptown, Soweto, due to a banning order (Milton & Pimstone, 2009).

Interest in Social Institutions and the Natural Environment In this stage of the life cycle, it is now the individual’s responsibility to maintain and develop all societal institutions which are needed for the

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survival and development of successive generations (Erikson, 1997). Data on both Albertina and Ruth suggest that they obtained a deep sense of purpose in their activism for political change and social justice. Albertina was one of the organisers of the famous 1956 march of 20 000 women to Union Buildings, the official seat of the South African Government and office of the President, in protest against the extension of pass laws to Black women. She was imprisoned during the pass law demonstrations of 1958, the first of many stints in prison (Sisulu, 2004). Within the anti-apartheid struggle, Albertina specifically campaigned for the abolition of passes for Black women and state-run beer halls, as well as for better education for Black people. As an activist and nurse, she was lauded for “a selfless and courageous life during which she showed an unwavering commitment to a non-racial philosophy of human equality and dignity for all” (Downing & Hastings-Tolsma, 2016, 223). Her belief in restoring justice to societal institutions persisted, even when it inconvenienced the family to whom she was so dedicated—“it was the price she was willing to pay at all times” (Sisulu, 2003, 76). Ruth displayed a deep sense of purpose in her political work related to both a sense of justice as well as a fair and equitable social order: “What was important was that she was not a white fighting for blacks, but a person fighting for her own right to live in a just society, which in the South African context meant destroying the whole system of white domination” (Sachs, 1989, 10). Ruth’s strong sense of justice is evident from her journalistic work, body of writing and anti-apartheid activities to expose a wide range of unjust social conditions. “Her legacy and commitment using her writing as an agent for social change are a rich source of inspiration for other writers… who want to write as part of an attempt to create a more equitable, just and sane social order” (Watson, 2009, 47). The collected data indicate that both Albertina, as well as Ruth, successfully achieved generativity during middle adulthood. Generativity holds inherent meaning-making potential, as a commitment to doing or creating things for their value beyond one’s own death, would enhance the appraisal of one’s life as coherent, significant, directed, and belonging (Schnell, 2009, 2011). Thus, their achievement of generativity potentially indicates the experience of meaning in life for both Albertina and Ruth. Significant and striking personal and contextual similarities and

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differences between the subjects uncovered in this psychobiographical comparison, however, remain worth noting. As women who had both pursued careers of their own, Albertina and Ruth established themselves as leaders within an anti-apartheid movement dominated by their male peers. Both were married to men in leadership positions in the anti-apartheid movement (Sisulu, 2003; Wieder, 2013a). Ruth also worked very closely with Walter Sisulu in the anti-­ apartheid struggle years (Pinnock, 1992; Wieder, 2013a) and the Sisulu’s and Slovo’s became close friends (Sisulu, 2003). Both Albertina and Walter were saddened by the loss of Ruth in 1982 (Sisulu, 2003). The Sisulu’s and Slovo’s were close enough family friends that Lindiwe Sisulu went to stay with Ruth and Joe Slovo in Mozambique after her traumatic detention, interrogation and torture at the hand of the Apartheid government (Sisulu, 2003). Another chilling similarity refers to their persecution by the Apartheid government, including banning orders arrests and detainments under the infamous Ninety Days Act (First, 1989; Sisulu, 2004). For both Albertina and Ruth the sense of purpose and generativity achieved within their anti-apartheid activism offered an opportunity to leave a meaningful legacy. The most striking differences between Albertina and Ruth involve race, culture, social context and their life course. Firstly, Albertina was a Black woman from rural Transkei, who was raised with the beliefs, norms and practices of both traditional Xhosa culture and Christianity, to which a minority of the local population had converted by the time of Albertina’s birth. Ruth, in contrast, was raised in a white secular Jewish family. Secondly, most of Albertina’s life was marked by economic hardship and apartheid-era restrictions that limited many of her fundamental human rights, whereas Ruth had enjoyed middle-class privilege since childhood. Ruth’s childhood was “…characterized characterised by the oxymoronic confluence of communist ideology with white privilege…” (Klein, 2006, 35). However, her Jewish immigrant heritage and her communist ideals placed her firmly within a minority group in a country where the political landscape during her lifetime would be dominated by Christian Afrikaner

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nationalists.4 Thirdly, as she was raised by parents who valued political activism, Ruth’s involvement in the anti-apartheid movement started early as a student and endured throughout her life. Albertina, however, was sheltered from political affairs during her childhood, and only became active in the liberation struggle herself in her early 30s. Finally, Ruth was killed at age 57 by a letter bomb, whilst Albertina lived to demonstrate the development of grand-generativity until her death at age 92.

4

Conclusion

Schnell’s (2009, 2011) integrated model of meaning-making incorporated generativity as an important potential source of meaning as a form of self-transcendence. This occurs through a commitment to goals and resolving the conflict between self-absorption on the one hand and the transcendence of their interests through the demonstration of care to others and future generations. Commitment to generativity as a source of meaning has been found to be the strongest predictor of a sense of meaningfulness. Albertina and Ruth existed in vastly different sociocultural contexts, yet shared a dedication to the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, within which they became prominent leaders. The authors highlighted the differences and similarities in the subjects’ achievement of meaning against the background of their shared, as well as differing contextual and personal factors. By selecting previously unstudied subjects, the researchers also aimed to address the lack of subject diversity, a frequent criticism against the psychobiographical approach. The authors recommend the following for future research. Firstly, psychobiography can be utilised to further explore women’s generativity development from alternative theoretical frameworks. This could serve to illuminate the potential gender differences within the meaning making process. Secondly, other potential sources of meaning (besides generativity) for Albertina and Ruth may be explored in subsequent studies. Thus,  Referring to the apartheid government’s prioritisation of Christianity as well as Afrikaner interests, culture and language which emerged from the descendants from European immigrants (mainly Dutch, but also French and German) who had colonised the Cape Colony (Giliomee, 2003). 4

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more may be understood regarding the meaning making process as a whole by exploring other sources of meaning within Schnell’s (2009, 2011) model. Finally, future studies could include other previously unstudied anti-apartheid activists as it may offer significant opportunity for eugraphic focus and inquiry to illuminate optimal human striving in the face of despairing adversity.

References Burnell, B., Nel, C., Fouché, P.  J. P., & Van Niekerk, R. (2019). Suitability indicators in the study of exemplary lives: Guidelines for the selection of the psychobiographical subject. In C. H. Mayer & Z. Kovary (Eds.), New trends in psychobiography (pp. 173–193). Springer. Downing, C., & Hastings-Tolsma, M. (2016). An integrative review of Albertina Sisulu and ubuntu: Relevance to caring and nursing. Health SA Gesondheid, 21, 214–227. https://hsag.co.za/index.php/hsag/article/view/956/1149 Erikson, E. H. (1963). Childhood and society (2nd ed.). WW Norton. Erikson, E. H. (1997). The life cycle completed: Extended version. W.W. Norton. First, R. (1989). 117 days. Monthly Review Press. Originally published in 1965. Freiberg, K. L. (1987). Human development: A lifespan approach (3rd ed.). Jones and Bartlett. Giliomee, H. (2003). The Afrikaners. Biography of a people. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Pess. Giliomee, H., & Mbenga, B. (2007). New history of South Africa. Tafelberg. Graves, S.  B., & Larkin, E. (2006). Lessons from Erikson. Journal of Intergenerational Relationships, 4(2), 61–71. https://doi.org/10.1300/ J194v04n02_05 Isaacson, K. (2005). Divide and multiply: Comparative theory and methodology in multiple case psychobiography. In W. T. Schultz (Ed.), Handbook of psychobiography (pp. 104–111). Oxford University Press. Kasrils, R. (2020). The revolutionary life and times of Ruth First and her legacy. Umsebenzi Online, 19(22) https://portside.org/node/23808/printable/print Klein, D. R. (2006). Negotiating femininity, ethnicity and history: Representations of Ruth First in South African struggle narratives. Unpublished Doctoral dissertation, Cape Town: University of Cape Town. Kuzwayo, E. (1985). Call me woman. The Women’s Press.

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McAdams, D. P. (1996). Personality, modernity and the storied self: A contemporary framework for studying persons. Psychological Inquiry, 7(4), 295–321. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327965pli0704_1 McAdams, D. P., De St. Aubin, E., & Logan, R. L. (1993). Generativity among young, midlife, and older adults. Psychology and Aging, 8(2), 221–230. https://doi.org/10.1037/0882-­7974.8.2.221 McAdams, D. P., & Guo, J. (2015). Narrating the generative life. Psychological Science, 26(4), 475–483. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797614568318 McGregor, L. (2011). Albertina Sisulu obituary. The Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jun/06/albertina-­sisulu-­obituary Milton, S., & Pimstone, M. (2009). Ruth First. Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopaedia. https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/first-­ruth Pinnock, D. (1992). Writing left. Ruth First and radical South African Journalism in the 1950’s. Unpublished Doctoral dissertation, Rhodes University, Grahamstown. Ponterotto, J. G., & Reynolds, J. D. (2017). Ethical and legal considerations in psychobiography. American Psychologist, 72(5), 446–458. https://doi. org/10.1037/amp0000047 Runyan, W.  M. (1983). Idiographic goals and methods in the study of lives. Journal of Personality, 51(3), 413–437. Sachs, A. (1989). Foreword. In R. First (Ed.), 117 days (pp. 7–12). Monthly Review Press. Schnell, T. (2009). The sources of meaning and meaning in life questionnaire (SoMe): Relations to demographics and well-being. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 4(3), 483–499. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760903271074 Schnell, T. (2011). Individual differences in meaning-making: Considering the variety of sources of meaning, their density and diversity. Personality and Individual Differences, 51, 667–673. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. paid.2011.06.006 Segal, R. (1982a). Ruth First: A memorial address. Review of African Political Economy, 9(25), 52–54. https://doi.org/10.1080/03056248208703514 Segal, R. (1982b). Ruth First. Index on Censorship, 11(6), 29–30. https://doi. org/10.1080/03064228208533457 Sisulu, E. (2003). Walter and Allbertina Sisulu: In our lifetime (2nd ed.). David Phillip. Sisulu, E. (2004). ‘Mrs Sisulu’s husband’: Subversion of gender roles in an African marriage. Social Dynamics, 30(1), 95–104. https://doi. org/10.1080/02533950408628664

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Sisulu, W. (2001). I will go singing: Walter Sisulu speaks of his life and the struggle for freedom in South Africa in conversation with George M Houser & Herbert Shore. Robben Island Museum in association with the Africa Fund. Slovo, G. (2007). Every secret thing: My family, my country. Virago Press. Sorell, G. T., & Montgomery, M. J. (2001). Feminist perspectives on Erikson’s theory: Their relevance for contemporary identity development research. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 1(2), 97–128. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/S1532706XID0102_01 Stevens, R. (2008). Erik Erikson: Explorer of identity and the life cycle. Palgrave Macmillan. Watson, J. (2009). Her story: Ruth First. Appraisal. Wordsetc., 43–47. https:// www.academia.edu/16026687/Her_Story_Ruth_First Wieder, A. (2011). Ruth First as educator: An untold story. South African Review of Education, 17(1), 86–100. https://journals.co.za/doi/10.10520/EJC99006 Wieder, A. (2013a). Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the war against Apartheid. Monthly Review Press. Wieder, A. (2013b). Speaking to the present South Africa: Ideas, writing, and the actions of Ruth First and Joe Slovo. Lecture at Lilliesleaf ’s 50th Year Commemoration of the Rivonia Raid, 1, 1–10. http://www.uct.ac.za/sites/ default/files/image_tool/images/2/AlanWieder-­17JulSeminar.pdf and http:// firstslovo.blogspot.com/2013/07/lilliesleaf-­talk-­july-­2-­2013.html

6 “I as Photographer”: A Visual Narrative Analysis of Vivian Maier’s Self-Portraits Athena Androutsopoulou, Charikleia Tsatsaroni, Georgia Koutsavgousti, and Kia Thanopoulou

We look at the world once, in childhood. The rest is memory. —Louise Glück, Nostos, Meadowlands, 1996

1

Introduction

In this visual-narrative psychobiography study we examine the life of the recently discovered street photographer Vivian Maier (February 1, 1926– April 21, 2009). We adopt a narrative psychology framework to look into

A. Androutsopoulou (*) • G. Koutsavgousti ‘Logo Psychis’- Training and Research Institute for Systemic Psychotherapy, Athens, Greece e-mail: [email protected] C. Tsatsaroni The Organization Against Drugs (OKANA), Athens, Greece e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 C.-H. Mayer et al. (eds.), Psychobiographical Illustrations on Meaning and Identity in Sociocultural Contexts, Sociocultural Psychology of the Lifecourse, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81238-6_6

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her self-portraits, and to understand how she constructed herself through time. We discuss findings by considering sociocultural issues, such as her socioeconomic background, as well as self-portrayal trends in the particular milieu. Vivian Maier is now recognized as an artist of comparable importance to great names of modern American photography, such as Lisette Model, Diane Arbus, Helen Levitt, Robert Frank (Philippe, 2011), who lived and worked in New York city from the 1930s to the early 1960s. Their photography subjects and technique have many similarities with those of Maier. These artists, many of whom were immigrants with European roots like Maier, believed that photography could help improve conditions of the working classes, and were influenced by the film industry of the time. Picture magazines published many of their photographs, that were also exhibited in art spaces in New  York (Livingston, 1992). In contrast, Vivian Maier did not pursue any such publicity or recognition, in fact she kept her work completely private until it was accidentally discovered in an auction of stored belongings two years before her death. The story of Vivian Maier recounted here is based mainly on two sources, the official Vivian Maier webpage (vivianmaier.com) and the documentary film “Finding Vivian Maier” (Maloof & Siskel, 2013).

2

Vivian Maier

Early and middle years Maier’s mother Maria Jaussaud, was French, and her father, Charles Maier, was Austrio-Hungarian. She was born in New York City and had an older brother Carl. Her family lived in conditions of great adversity and conflict. Her parents separated soon after her birth and Vivian lived with her mother and her mother’s friend, Jeanne Bertrand, an award-winning portrait photographer. Bertrand may have

K. Thanopoulou Family Therapy Unit, Psychiatric Hospital of Attica, Athens, Greece

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been an inspiration to Vivian, even if she was only a young child at the time. Maier spent most of her youth in France and returned to the US at least once before finally settling there in 1951. She had picked up photography two years earlier, but made a living as a nanny. In 1956 she left for Chicago to be employed by the Gensburg family to care for their three boys, and had the luxury of a private bathroom that she used as a darkroom. After 1972 she worked for other families without the darkroom facilities she previously enjoyed, and carried with her an excessive amount of luggage. Photographs and travels Over the course of her adult life, Maier took thousands of pictures and left over 100,000 negatives, most of them shot in the streets of New York City and Chicago, and some homemade films. She used a Kodak Brownie box camera, a Rolleiflex camera, a Leica IIIc, and various German SLR cameras. Maier seemed to have an affinity for people at the social margins, probably because part of her felt close to them. Maier made a number of handprints in her darkroom, but she also took bundles of film rolls to printing labs. The developers of those labs had the unique privilege of seeing her work, but knew her with pseudonyms. Maier travelled around the world all by herself, taking pictures, and in the 1950s and 1960s she visited cities in the U.S, Canada, South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Egypt, and the Caribbean Islands Personal life and character There is no record of her having a personal life. She had no partners or close friends that could claim they really “knew” her. She had little or no contact with her family members. People remember her as eccentric, with strong opinions and strange, out-of-date clothes and men’s shoes. She was very secretive about her life and used to jokingly say she was a spy, when others asked her about herself. In Maloof & Siskel’s documentary film mentioned above, some of the children she took care of in later years remembered her as odd, strict, even abusive. They suspected she was probably traumatized, possibly sexually, in her early years. She often warned children to stay away from men and their perverseness, collected newspaper articles with stories of crime and abuse, and was startled and afraid when she thought men were coming too close, as most victims of abuse would react. Old age and death As Maier aged and stopped working as a nanny, she had little money. She experienced periods of homelessness, but paid

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to keep her many belongings in stores. In those days, people who recalled her said she appeared weird and antisocial, “the old lady sitting in the park bench” who rarely spoke to anyone and who often searched the garbage and ate out of food cans. In 2008 she suffered a head injury inflicted by a fall on an icy street. Eventually, the Gensburg brothers put her in a nursing home, but she died a year later. Having failed to pay rent to the stores, her private belongings (including photography books and vintage clothing, but also huge piles of newspapers and objects collected from the street) were auctioned in Chicago. Most of her work, prints and negatives, was bought by Jon Maloof who made her work known and who searched her story and origins (Maloof, 2011, 2013, 2014; see also Westerbeck, 2018).

2.1

 elf-Portraits as Windows into Maier’s S Covert World

In the foreword of the book “Vivian Maier: Self-portraits”, Maloof (2013) sees self-portraits as “unique confessions” by artists; they can tell us how artists view themselves and the world around them, and may answer questions of who an artist was, especially a mysterious one, like Maier. Maier left no autobiographical materials (letters, diaries, notes) that we know of, with the exception of a brief voice recording, ordinary mail, bills and short notes. For this reason, and despite the fact that Maier’s self-­ portraits reveal “no great emotion” and “little drama”, these portraits have been generally treated as images allowing “an unveiled window into her covert world” (Avedon, 2013, 8). Maier appears to have struggled to answer the question “Who am I?” by taking numerous pictures of herself as reflected in various types of mirrors, glasses or as shadows on the pavement. In our study, we adopt a narrative psychology framework to look into Maier’s self-portraits, in order to understand how Maier constructed herself through time, and how she struggled to make meaning of her experiences.

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3

A Narrative Psychology Framework

Meaning making is at the heart of narrative psychology (Bruner, 2003; Gergen, 1994; McAdams & Janis, 2004; Sarbin, 1986). The way people give meaning to the experiences of self and others is understood to be a story-telling process. Meaning, therefore, does not pre-exist the interpretation of experience, but rather it is a linguistic, socially constructed achievement. Experiences are taken into narrative frames and are “situated in sequences of events that are unfolding through time according to particular themes” (White, 2004, 25). Identity itself is understood as a phenomenon of “self-construction” rather than an entity, the traces of which can be found in oral and written self-narratives (e.g. diaries, letters), performances, favorite rituals and ceremonies, but even in the impressions and imaginations of others (White, 2004). Self-narratives are constantly updated as they unfold (Bruner, 1990; Ochs & Capps, 1996; Smorti, 2011) and conform to “a tacit pacte autobiographique governing what constitutes appropriate public self-­ telling” (Bruner, 2004, 4–5). Self-construction is both a private and public act, we turn to others to help define ourselves (Bruner, 2004). In line also with Cooley’s (1902) looking-glass self-theory (Scheff, 2003), we learn to turn toward or away from them, to reveal ourselves or to hide, to take pride or feel shame depending on others’ real or imagined reactions.

3.1

Self-Portraits as Self-Construction

In all forms of self-construction, the questions implicitly posed are: “Who am I?” “Who am I becoming?” “Who would I like to / fear to be?” This construction embeds parallel strategies used to avoid any painful aspects of self-representation. Self-portraits in all forms of art (painting, photography), and recently selfies posted on Instagram and other social media, have been paralleled with self-construction of self-narratives and autobiography (e.g. Crozier & Greenhalgh, 1988; Jones, 2015; Pereira Caldeira, 2016; Tiidenberg, 2015). Self-portraits as self-narratives, entail the construction of self in space and time, a work in progress, an active and endless performance. Talking of van Gogh’s self-portraits, Meissner (1993)

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saw them as repeated and unresolved efforts at self-exploration and self-­ definition in an attempt to add a sense of continuity and cohesion to a fragile and fragmented self-experience. And Dadvar et  al. (2013) approached Kahlo’s self-portraits as indicative of ups and downs in her life and of how Kahlo felt towards her own self (see also Androutsopoulou et al., 2021). Rembrandt’s self-portraits have often been studied as though they were photographic self-portraits at progressive stages in his life. Information about his life has been sparse, no letters or personal documents have been found, so several biographers have used features of his self-portraits to fill in gaps (Rothenberg, 2017). Modifications in Rembrandt’s self-portrayal over time have been attributed to a number of factors, including alterations in the way he viewed himself and changes in the way he wanted to be seen (Marcus & Clarfield, 2002).

3.2

Identification of Life Themes

Identifying life themes in a series of self-narratives and self-portraits, and monitoring their development is a methodological way of understanding the process of continuing self-construction and search for meaning (Androutsopoulou, 2015). Life theme identification and monitoring of theme development has served to illustrate the struggle for meaning making in other psychobiography studies. Studying the autobiography of American painter Georgia O’Keeffe, who lived a long and fulfilling life, Androutsopoulou et  al. (2019a) compared her three earliest memories with her three concluding memories and found a life theme running across all of them. Looking into the sexual trauma story of English author Virginia Woolf, as retold in autobiographical writings, Androutsopoulou (2019) found that this story was also constructed around a major life theme. Both those studies showed that life theme development serves continuity and change, but the Woolf study also revealed that theme development can have limitations; a dead end may be reached in the pursuing of meaning. Like many victims of early sexual or physical abuse, Virginia Woolf found it difficult to associate affect to her descriptions of trauma (see also van der Kolk, 2014; Wigren, 1994). This difficulty, of which she became painfully aware at the end of her struggle, created an

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important obstacle in completing her narrative and in making satisfactory sense of her trauma experiences.

3.3

Life Themes as Story Lines

Life theme development can be depicted as a story line giving emphasis to its form or structure. Gergen (1988) has suggested that “traditions of story-telling, dramatic performance, literature and the like have generated a range of culturally shared forms of emplotment or narrative structures that can be analyzed in terms of three basic story lines or prototypes: stability (life as monotonous and directionless), progression (life is getting better) and regression (life is getting worse)” (p. 96). This typology allows for the combination of the three prototypes that result in more complex variations. Similarly, McAdams and Bowman (2001) have examined life’s turning points as stories of either “redemption” (from bad to good) or “contamination” (from good to bad). Eventually, turning points lead to a positive or negative evaluation of life, to a sense of fulfillment or despair in the Eriksonian tradition of psychosocial stages of development (Bruner, 2004).

4

The Present Study

Intrigued by Maier’s self-portraits, we sought to explore how she constructed herself through time. We assumed this self-construction story was told in pictures rather than words.

4.1

Ethics

Talking of ethics in narrative research, Josselson (2007a) states that what gives narrative analysis its meaning and value, is that “the researcher endeavors to obtain ‘data’ from a deeply human, genuine, empathic, and respectful relationship to the participant about significant and meaningful aspects of the participant’s life” (p. 539). Of course, this relationship

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can also develop through an empathic study of one’s life through texts and images, as in the case of psychobiography (Elms, 1994). An empathic stance is different to a “hagiographic or “idealographic” one, warned against by Ponterotto (2014), but does not exclude a certain admiration toward the famous public person under study. “Bracketing” and monitoring perceptions and feelings toward the psychobiography subject is considered important (Ponterotto & Reynolds, 2017). In a team-based approach to analyzing qualitative data such as ours (see McLeod, 2010), this process is easier, it is a product of fruitful exchanges and eventual consensus. We all agreed that our feelings for Maier were ambivalent. On the one hand, her secrecy and flat emotion, expressed in her self-portraits, created a distance with her that felt uncomfortable. On the other hand, her adventurous nature, her talent, and, most of all, her solitude moved us deeply.

4.2

Materials

High vigilance was required in treating personal data, as Vivian Maier is considered recently diseased (