psychobiˈography
[f. psycho- + biography.]
a. A biography dealing esp. with the psychology of the subject.
| 1931 Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. XXII. 96 The majority of ‘psychobiographies’ and pseudo-scientific works on the psychology of character. 1969 Daily Tel. 20 Mar. 22/2 Frank E. Manuel, the American historian,..in this ‘psycho-biography’ attempts to analyse aspects of Newton's conduct. 1974 Publishers Weekly 13 May 56/2 To understand Mishima's death, Scott-Stokes thinks, one must understand his life. With this useful psycho⁓biography he would seem to have made his case. 1977 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 23 June 23 (Advt.), An iconoclastic psychobiography of Freud's disciple. |
b. The art of writing psychobiographies; the interpretation of life histories in psychological terms, or the psychological analysis of a historical person.
| 1965 Hist. & Theory IV. 357 This is still psychobiography, but the psychopathological model has given way to a model of man in history. 1975 Times Lit. Suppl. 24 Jan. 90/2 The problem..is how to read the personality into the action, and it is the claim of psychobiography that this can not only be done but that it can be done systematically. The classic exercise in psychobiography is Erik Erikson's Young Man Luther. |
Hence psychobiˈographer, a writer of psychobiography; ˌpsychobioˈgraphic, -ical adjs.; ˌpsychobioˈgraphically adv.
| 1972 N.Y. Times Bk. Rev. 10 Dec. 36 It [sc. a book] makes no large historiographical, mythological or psycho⁓biographical assumptions. 1975 Times Lit. Suppl. 24 Jan. 90/2 A psychobiographer would naturally reply that this is to take too literal and simplistic a view of the information that is contained in the sources. 1977 Oxf. Lit. Rev. II. iii. 8/1 This touches on processes which are not consonant either with the communal norms of cultural expectations or with the detective work of psycho⁓biographers. 1977 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 15 Sept. 40/4 He is a psychobiographical critic.., interested in the poem not as artifact but as evidence. 1978 Dædalus Spring 229 It is..contrary to the psychobiographic drive of most of the younger scientists. 1979 N.Y. Times 15 July ii. 19 Leopold cuts a rather poor figure, psychobiographically, emerging as the standard narcissistic parent who sees his child only as an extension of his own ego. |