Psychohistory
Encyclopedia
Psychohistory is the study of the psychological motivations of historical events. It attempts to combine the insights of psychotherapy
with the research methodology of the social sciences
to understand the emotional origin of the social and political behavior of groups and nations, past and present. Its subject matter is childhood and the family
(especially child abuse
), and psychological studies of anthropology
and ethnology
.
Psychohistory derives many of its conceits from areas that are perceived to be ignored by conventional historians as shaping factors of human history, in particular, the effects of childbirth
, parenting
practice, and child abuse.
The historical impact of incest
, infanticide
and child sacrifice
are considered. Psychohistory holds that human societies can change between infanticidal and non-infanticidal practices and has coined the term "early infanticidal childrearing
" to describe abuse and neglect observed by many anthropologists. Lloyd deMause
, the pioneer of psychohistory, has described a system of psychogenic modes (see below) which describe the range of styles of parenting he has observed historically and across cultures.
Many anthropologists concur that "the science of culture is independent of the laws of biology
and psychology
". And Émile Durkheim
, whose contributions were instrumental in the formation of sociology
and anthropology, laid down the principle: "The determining cause of a social fact should be sought among social facts preceding and not among the states of individual consciousness
". Psychohistorians, on the other hand, suggest that social behavior such as crime
and war
may be a self-destructive re-enactment of earlier abuse and neglect; that unconscious flashbacks to early fears and destructive parenting could dominate individual and social behavior.
Psychohistory relies heavily on historical biography. Notable examples of psychobiographies
are those of Lewis Namier
, who wrote about the British House of Commons
, and Fawn Brodie, who wrote about Thomas Jefferson
.
Science fiction author and scientist/science writer Isaac Asimov
popularized the term in his famous Foundation series of novels, though in his works the term is used fictionally for a mathematical discipline that can be used to predict the general course of future history.
1.- The History of Childhood - which looks at such questions as:
2.- Psychobiography
- which seeks to understand individual historical people and their motivations in history.
3.- Group Psychohistory - which seeks to understand the motivations of large groups, including nations, in history and current affairs. In doing so, psychohistory advances the use of group-fantasy analysis of political speeches, political cartoons and media headlines since the fantasy words therein offer clues to unconscious thinking and behaviors.
's well known work, Civilization and Its Discontents
(1929), included an analysis of history based on his theory of psychoanalysis. Yet, Freud's text is in no way a psycho-historical work since the focus of the study is to move beyond the level of individual psyche to explain the influence of the structures of civilization. Rather, Freud's work is the opposite of psycho-history that claims that the unconscious and the individual psyche are both structural effects of different social forces.
Wilhelm Reich
combined his psychoanalytic and political theories in his book The Mass Psychology of Fascism
in 1933.
The psychologist and philosopher Erich Fromm
wrote about the psychological motivation behind political ideology, starting with The Fear of Freedom in 1941.
Its first academic use appeared in Erik Erikson
's book Young Man Luther (1958), where the author called for a discipline of "psycho-history" to examine the impact of human character on history.
Lloyd deMause
developed a formal psychohistorical approach from 1974 onwards, and continues to be an influential theorist in this field.
Psychohistorians maintain that the difference is one of emphasis and that, in conventional study, narrative and description are central, while psychological motivation is hardly touched on. For deMause, child abuse takes the center stage. Psychohistorians accuse most anthropologists and ethnologists of being apologists for incest, infanticide, cannibalism
and child sacrifice. They maintain that what constitutes child abuse is a matter of objective fact, and that some of the practices which mainstream anthropologists apologize for (e.g., sacrificial rituals) may result in psychosis
, dissociation and magical thinking: particularly for the surviving children who had a sacrificed brother or sister by their parents. In a 1994 interview with deMause in The New Yorker
, the interviewer wrote: "To buy into psychohistory, you have to subscribe to some fairly woolly assumptions [...], for instance, that a nations's child-rearing techniques affect its foreign policy". Psychohistorians also believe that cultural relativism
is contrary to the letter and spirit of human rights
.
and Red State
voters in the contemporary United States.
Another key psychohistorical concept is that of group fantasy, which deMause regards as a mediating force between a psychoclass's collective childhood experiences (and the psychic conflicts emerging therefrom), and the psychoclass's behavior in politics, religion and other aspects of social life.
A psychogenic mode in Psychohistory is a type of mentality (or psychoclass) that results from, and is associated with, a particular childrearing style. The major psychogenic modes described by deMause are:
Psychohistorians maintain that the six modes of abusive childrearing (excluding the "helping mode") are related to psychiatric disorders from psychoses to neuroses.
The chart below shows the dates at which these modes are believed to have evolved in the most advanced nations, based on contemporary accounts from historical records. A black-and-white version of the chart appears in Foundations of Psychohistory.
The timeline doesn't apply to hunter-gatherer
societies. It doesn't apply either to the Greek
and Roman
world, where there was a wide variation in childrearing practices. It is notable that the arrival of the Ambivalent mode of child-rearing preceded the start of the Renaissance
(mid 14th century) by only one or two generations, and the arrival of the Socializing mode coincided with the Age of Enlightenment
, which began in the late 18th century.
Reports of selective abortion
(and sometimes exposure of baby girls) especially in China
, Korea
, Taiwan
, Singapore
, Malaysia, India
, Pakistan
, New Guinea, and many other developing countries in Asia
and North Africa
explain why millions of women are "missing" in Asia. From the psychohistorical view, this demonstrates that the earlier forms of childrearing coexist with later modes, even in the most advanced countries. However, the chart should not be regarded as an accurate representation of the relative prevalence of each mode in the present day, as it is not based on large-scale, formal surveys.
According to psychohistory theory, each of the six psychoclasses co-exists in the modern world
today, and, regardless of the changes in the environment, it is only when changes in childhood occur that societies begin to progress.
The Y-Axis on the above chart serves as an indicator of the new stage and not a measurement of the stage's size or relation to the x-axis.
There is notwithstanding an optimistic trait in the field. In a world of "helping mode" parents, deMause believes, violence of any other sort will disappear as well, along with magical thinking
, mental disorders, wars and other inhumanities of man against man. Although, the criticism has been made that this itself is a form of magical thinking.
field of study, and deMause and other psychohistorians face criticism in the academic community. DeMause's formulations have been criticized for being insufficiently supported by credible research. Psychohistory uses a plurality of methodologies, and it is difficult to determine which is appropriate to use in each circumstance. The discipline has the advantage of being able to deal with motive
in history and is useful in developing narratives, but is forced to psychoanalyse its subjects after the fact, which was not considered when the theory was developed and expanded. Recent psychohistory has also been criticized for being overly-entangled with DeMause, whose theories do not speak for the entire field.
The 1974 book in which deMause included essays of nine professional historians, The History of Childhood, offers a survey of the treatment of children through history. Although critics generally spare these nine historians, they see deMause as a strong proponent of the "black legend" view of childhood history (i.e. that the history of childhood was above all a history of progress, with children being far more often badly mistreated in the past). Similarly, his work has been criticized for being a history of child abuse, not childhood.
The History of Childhood, authored by ten scholars (including deMause), is often linked to Edward Shorter's The Making of the Modern Family and Lawrence Stone
's The Family, Sex and Marriage in England 1500-1800, because of the common ground they share in agreeing with a grim perspective of childhood history. But deMause's work in particular has attracted hostility from historian Hugh Cunningham. Thomas Kohut went even further:
DeMause and the psychohistorians respond that their detractors are not largely moved by evidence, but rather are unconsciously motivated to attack those who would challenge the idea of "good parenting" even in very primitive tribes or cultures.
.
The International Psychohistorical Association founded by Lloyd deMause
in 1977 is the professional organization for the field of psychohistory. It publishes Psychohistory News and has a psychohistorical mail order lending library. It hosts an annual convention.
A course in Psychohistory has been taught at a three universities at the undergraduate level. The following have published course details: Boston University
, City University of New York
and Wesleyan University
.
The Psychohistory Forum, which publishes the quarterly journal Clio’s Psyche, was founded in 1983 by historian and psychoanalyst Paul H. Elovitz. This organization of academics, therapists, and laypeople holds regular scholarly meetings in New York City and at international conventions. It also sponsors an online discussion group. http://groups.google.com/group/cliospsyche.
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is a general term referring to any form of therapeutic interaction or treatment contracted between a trained professional and a client or patient; family, couple or group...
with the research methodology of the social sciences
Social sciences
Social science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...
to understand the emotional origin of the social and political behavior of groups and nations, past and present. Its subject matter is childhood and the family
Family
In human context, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children...
(especially child abuse
Child abuse
Child abuse is the physical, sexual, emotional mistreatment, or neglect of a child. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Children And Families define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or...
), and psychological studies of anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
and ethnology
Ethnology
Ethnology is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.-Scientific discipline:Compared to ethnography, the study of single groups through direct...
.
Description
Childbirth
Childbirth is the culmination of a human pregnancy or gestation period with the birth of one or more newborn infants from a woman's uterus...
, parenting
Parenting
Parenting is the process of promoting and supporting the physical, emotional, social, and intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood...
practice, and child abuse.
The historical impact of incest
Incest
Incest is sexual intercourse between close relatives that is usually illegal in the jurisdiction where it takes place and/or is conventionally considered a taboo. The term may apply to sexual activities between: individuals of close "blood relationship"; members of the same household; step...
, infanticide
Infanticide
Infanticide or infant homicide is the killing of a human infant. Neonaticide, a killing within 24 hours of a baby's birth, is most commonly done by the mother.In many past societies, certain forms of infanticide were considered permissible...
and child sacrifice
Child sacrifice
Child sacrifice is the ritualistic killing of children in order to please, propitiate or force a god or supernatural beings in order to achieve a desired result...
are considered. Psychohistory holds that human societies can change between infanticidal and non-infanticidal practices and has coined the term "early infanticidal childrearing
Early infanticidal childrearing
Early infanticidal childrearing is a term used in the study of psychohistory that refers to infanticide in paleolithic, pre-historical, and historical hunter-gatherer tribes or societies. "Early" means early in history or in the cultural development of a society, not to the age of the child....
" to describe abuse and neglect observed by many anthropologists. Lloyd deMause
Lloyd deMause
Lloyd deMause, pronounced de-Moss , is an American social thinker known for his work in the field of psychohistory. He did graduate work in political science at Columbia University and later trained as a lay psychoanalyst...
, the pioneer of psychohistory, has described a system of psychogenic modes (see below) which describe the range of styles of parenting he has observed historically and across cultures.
Many anthropologists concur that "the science of culture is independent of the laws of biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
and psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
". And Émile Durkheim
Émile Durkheim
David Émile Durkheim was a French sociologist. He formally established the academic discipline and, with Karl Marx and Max Weber, is commonly cited as the principal architect of modern social science and father of sociology.Much of Durkheim's work was concerned with how societies could maintain...
, whose contributions were instrumental in the formation of sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
and anthropology, laid down the principle: "The determining cause of a social fact should be sought among social facts preceding and not among the states of individual consciousness
Consciousness
Consciousness is a term that refers to the relationship between the mind and the world with which it interacts. It has been defined as: subjectivity, awareness, the ability to experience or to feel, wakefulness, having a sense of selfhood, and the executive control system of the mind...
". Psychohistorians, on the other hand, suggest that social behavior such as crime
Crime
Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...
and war
War
War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...
may be a self-destructive re-enactment of earlier abuse and neglect; that unconscious flashbacks to early fears and destructive parenting could dominate individual and social behavior.
Psychohistory relies heavily on historical biography. Notable examples of psychobiographies
Psychobiography
Psychobiography aims to understand historically significant individuals such as artists, political leaders, and so on, through the application of psychological theory and research...
are those of Lewis Namier
Lewis Bernstein Namier
Sir Lewis Bernstein Namier was an English historian. He was born Ludwik Niemirowski in Wola Okrzejska in what was then part of the Russian Empire and is today in Poland.-Life:...
, who wrote about the British House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
, and Fawn Brodie, who wrote about Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
.
Science fiction author and scientist/science writer Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
popularized the term in his famous Foundation series of novels, though in his works the term is used fictionally for a mathematical discipline that can be used to predict the general course of future history.
Areas of psychohistorical study
There are three inter-related areas of psychohistorical study.1.- The History of Childhood - which looks at such questions as:
- How have children been raised throughout history
- How has the family been constituted
- How and why have practices changed over time
- The changing place and value of children in society over time
- How and why our views of child abuse and neglect have changed
2.- Psychobiography
Psychobiography
Psychobiography aims to understand historically significant individuals such as artists, political leaders, and so on, through the application of psychological theory and research...
- which seeks to understand individual historical people and their motivations in history.
3.- Group Psychohistory - which seeks to understand the motivations of large groups, including nations, in history and current affairs. In doing so, psychohistory advances the use of group-fantasy analysis of political speeches, political cartoons and media headlines since the fantasy words therein offer clues to unconscious thinking and behaviors.
Emergence as a discipline
Sigmund FreudSigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
's well known work, Civilization and Its Discontents
Civilization and Its Discontents
Civilization and Its Discontents is a book by Sigmund Freud. Written in 1929, and first published in German in 1930 as Das Unbehagen in der Kultur , it is considered one of Freud's most important and widely read works....
(1929), included an analysis of history based on his theory of psychoanalysis. Yet, Freud's text is in no way a psycho-historical work since the focus of the study is to move beyond the level of individual psyche to explain the influence of the structures of civilization. Rather, Freud's work is the opposite of psycho-history that claims that the unconscious and the individual psyche are both structural effects of different social forces.
Wilhelm Reich
Wilhelm Reich
Wilhelm Reich was an Austrian-American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, known as one of the most radical figures in the history of psychiatry...
combined his psychoanalytic and political theories in his book The Mass Psychology of Fascism
The Mass Psychology of Fascism
The Mass Psychology of Fascism, originally Die Massenpsychologie des Faschismus in German, was a book written by Wilhelm Reich in 1933...
in 1933.
The psychologist and philosopher Erich Fromm
Erich Fromm
Erich Seligmann Fromm was a Jewish German-American social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. He was associated with what became known as the Frankfurt School of critical theory.-Life:Erich Fromm was born on March 23, 1900, at Frankfurt am...
wrote about the psychological motivation behind political ideology, starting with The Fear of Freedom in 1941.
Its first academic use appeared in Erik Erikson
Erik Erikson
Erik Erikson was a Danish-German-American developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst known for his theory on social development of human beings. He may be most famous for coining the phrase identity crisis. His son, Kai T...
's book Young Man Luther (1958), where the author called for a discipline of "psycho-history" to examine the impact of human character on history.
Lloyd deMause
Lloyd deMause
Lloyd deMause, pronounced de-Moss , is an American social thinker known for his work in the field of psychohistory. He did graduate work in political science at Columbia University and later trained as a lay psychoanalyst...
developed a formal psychohistorical approach from 1974 onwards, and continues to be an influential theorist in this field.
Independence as a discipline
DeMause and others have argued that psychohistory is a separate field of scholarly inquiry with its own particular methods, objectives and theories, which set it apart from conventional historical analysis and anthropology. Some historians, social scientists and anthropologists have, however, argued that their disciplines already describe psychological motivation and that Psychohistory is not, therefore, a separate subject. Others have dismissed deMause's theories and motives arguing that the emphasis given by Psychohistory to speculation on the psychological motivations of people in history make it an undisciplined field of study. Doubt has also been cast on the viability of the application of post-mortem psychoanalysis by Freud's followers.Psychohistorians maintain that the difference is one of emphasis and that, in conventional study, narrative and description are central, while psychological motivation is hardly touched on. For deMause, child abuse takes the center stage. Psychohistorians accuse most anthropologists and ethnologists of being apologists for incest, infanticide, cannibalism
Cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...
and child sacrifice. They maintain that what constitutes child abuse is a matter of objective fact, and that some of the practices which mainstream anthropologists apologize for (e.g., sacrificial rituals) may result in psychosis
Psychosis
Psychosis means abnormal condition of the mind, and is a generic psychiatric term for a mental state often described as involving a "loss of contact with reality"...
, dissociation and magical thinking: particularly for the surviving children who had a sacrificed brother or sister by their parents. In a 1994 interview with deMause in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, the interviewer wrote: "To buy into psychohistory, you have to subscribe to some fairly woolly assumptions [...], for instance, that a nations's child-rearing techniques affect its foreign policy". Psychohistorians also believe that cultural relativism
Cultural relativism
Cultural relativism is the principle that an individual human's beliefs and activities should be understood by others in terms of that individual's own culture. This principle was established as axiomatic in anthropological research by Franz Boas in the first few decades of the 20th century and...
is contrary to the letter and spirit of human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
.
Psychogenic mode
Psychohistorians have written much about changes in the human psyche through history; changes that they believe were produced by parents, and especially the mothers' increasing capacity to empathize with their children. Key to deMause's thought is the concept of psychoclass, which emerges out of a particular style of childrearing, and child abuse, at a particular period in a society's development. The conflict of new and old psychoclasses is also highlighted in psychohistorians' thought. This is reflected, for instance, in the clash between Blue StateDemocratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
and Red State
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
voters in the contemporary United States.
Another key psychohistorical concept is that of group fantasy, which deMause regards as a mediating force between a psychoclass's collective childhood experiences (and the psychic conflicts emerging therefrom), and the psychoclass's behavior in politics, religion and other aspects of social life.
A psychogenic mode in Psychohistory is a type of mentality (or psychoclass) that results from, and is associated with, a particular childrearing style. The major psychogenic modes described by deMause are:
| Mode | Childrearing characteristics | Historical manifestations |
|---|---|---|
| Infanticidal | Early infanticidal childrearing Early infanticidal childrearing Early infanticidal childrearing is a term used in the study of psychohistory that refers to infanticide in paleolithic, pre-historical, and historical hunter-gatherer tribes or societies. "Early" means early in history or in the cultural development of a society, not to the age of the child.... : Ritual sacrifice. High infanticide rates, incest, body mutilation, child rape and tortures. | Child sacrifice Child sacrifice Child sacrifice is the ritualistic killing of children in order to please, propitiate or force a god or supernatural beings in order to achieve a desired result... and infanticide Infanticide Infanticide or infant homicide is the killing of a human infant. Neonaticide, a killing within 24 hours of a baby's birth, is most commonly done by the mother.In many past societies, certain forms of infanticide were considered permissible... among tribal societies, Mesoamerica and the Incas; in Assyria Assyria Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur... n and Canaan Canaan Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan... ite religions. Phoenicians, Carthaginians and other early states also sacrificed infants to their gods. On the other hand, the relatively more enlightened Greeks and Romans exposed some of their babies ("late" infanticidal childrearing). |
| Late infanticidal childrearing: While the young child is not overly rejected by the mother, many newborn babies, especially girls, are exposed Child abandonment Child abandonment is the practice of relinquishing interests and claims over one's offspring with the intent of never again resuming or reasserting them. Causes include many social and cultural factors as well as mental illness. An abandoned child is called a foundling .-Causes:Poverty is often a... to death. | ||
| Abandoning | Early Christians considered a child as having a soul at birth, although possessed by evil tendencies. Routine infanticide was replaced by joining in the group fantasy of the sacrifice of Christ, who was sent by his father to be killed for the sins of others. Routine pederasty of boys continued in monasteries and elsewhere, and the rape of girls was commonplace. | Infanticide replaced by abandonment. Those children who survived the experience did not internalize a completely murderous superego. Longer swaddling Swaddling Swaddling is an age-old practice of wrapping infants in swaddling cloths, blankets or similar cloth so that movement of the limbs is tightly restricted. Swaddling bands were often used to further restrict the infant... , fosterage Fosterage Fosterage, the practice of a family bringing up a child not their own, differs from adoption in that the child's parents, not the foster-parents, remain the acknowledged parents. In many modern western societies foster care can be organised by the state to care for children with troubled family... , outside wetnursing Wet nurse A wet nurse is a woman who is used to breast feed and care for another's child. Wet nurses are used when the mother is unable or chooses not to nurse the child herself. Wet-nursed children may be known as "milk-siblings", and in some cultures the families are linked by a special relationship of... , oblation of children to monasteries and nunneries, and apprenticeship Apprenticeship Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a skill. Apprentices or protégés build their careers from apprenticeships... . |
| Ambivalent | The 12th century saw the first child instruction manuals and rudimentary child protection laws, although most mothers still emotionally rejected their children. Children were often treated as erotic objects by adults. | The later Middle Ages ended abandonment of children to monasteries. Enema Enema An enema is the procedure of introducing liquids into the rectum and colon via the anus. The increasing volume of the liquid causes rapid expansion of the lower intestinal tract, often resulting in very uncomfortable bloating, cramping, powerful peristalsis, a feeling of extreme urgency and... s, early beating, shorter swaddling, mourning for deceased children, a precursor to empathy Empathy Empathy is the capacity to recognize and, to some extent, share feelings that are being experienced by another sapient or semi-sapient being. Someone may need to have a certain amount of empathy before they are able to feel compassion. The English word was coined in 1909 by E.B... . |
| Intrusive | During the 16th century, particularly in England, parents shifted from trying to stop children's growth to trying to control them and make them obedient. Parents were prepared to give them attention as long as they controlled their minds, their insides, their anger and the lives they led. | The intrusive parent began to unswaddle the infant. Early toilet training, repression Psychological repression Psychological repression, also psychic repression or simply repression, is the psychological attempt by an individual to repel one's own desires and impulses towards pleasurable instincts by excluding the desire from one's consciousness and holding or subduing it in the unconscious... of child's sexuality. Hell Hell In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations... threats turned into the Puritan child so familiar from early modern childrearing literature. On the other hand, the end of swaddling and wet-nursing made possible the explosive modern takeoff in scientific advance. |
| Socializing | Beginning in the 18th century, mothers began to actually enjoy child care, and fathers began to participate in younger children's development. The aim remained instilling parental goals rather than encouraging individuation. Psychological manipulation Psychological manipulation Psychological manipulation is a type of social influence that aims to change the perception or behavior of others through underhanded, deceptive, or even abusive tactics. By advancing the interests of the manipulator, often at the other's expense, such methods could be considered exploitative,... and spanking Spanking Spanking refers to the act of striking the buttocks of another person to cause temporary pain without producing physical injury. It generally involves one person striking the buttocks of another person with an open hand. When an open hand is used, spanking is referred to in some countries as... were used to make children obedient. Hellfire and the harsher physical disciplinary actions using objects to beat the child disappeared. The Socializing Mode remains the most popular model of parenting in North America and Western Europe to the present day. | Use of guilt, "mental discipline", humiliation Humiliation Humiliation is the abasement of pride, which creates mortification or leads to a state of being humbled or reduced to lowliness or submission. It can be brought about through bullying, intimidation, physical or mental mistreatment or trickery, or by embarrassment if a person is revealed to have... , rise of compulsory schooling Compulsory education Compulsory education refers to a period of education that is required of all persons.-Antiquity to Medieval Era:Although Plato's The Republic is credited with having popularized the concept of compulsory education in Western intellectual thought, every parent in Judea since Moses's Covenant with... , delegation of parental unconscious wishes. As parental injections continued to diminish, the rearing of the child became less a process of conquering its will than of training it. The socializing psychoclass built the modern world. |
| Helping | Beginning in the mid-20th century, some parents adopted the role of helping children reach their own goals in life, rather than "socialize" them into fulfilling parental wishes. Less psychological manipulation, more unconditional love. Children raised in this way are far more empathic towards others in society than earlier generations. | Children's rights movement Children's rights movement The Children's Rights Movement is a historical and modern movement committed to the acknowledgment, expansion, and/or regression of the rights of children around the world... , deschooling Deschooling Deschooling is a term used by both education philosophers and proponents of alternative education and/or homeschooling, though it refers to different things in each context... and free schooling, natural childbirth Natural childbirth Natural Childbirth is a philosophy of childbirth that is based on the notion that women who are adequately prepared are innately able to give birth without routine medical interventions. Natural childbirth arose in opposition to the techno-medical model of childbirth that has recently gained... , Taking Children Seriously Taking Children Seriously Taking Children Seriously is a parenting movement and educational philosophy whose central idea is that it is possible and desirable to raise and educate children without either doing anything to them against their will, or making them do anything against their will.It was founded in 1994 as an... and the abandonment of circumcision Circumcision Male circumcision is the surgical removal of some or all of the foreskin from the penis. The word "circumcision" comes from Latin and .... . |
Psychohistorians maintain that the six modes of abusive childrearing (excluding the "helping mode") are related to psychiatric disorders from psychoses to neuroses.
The chart below shows the dates at which these modes are believed to have evolved in the most advanced nations, based on contemporary accounts from historical records. A black-and-white version of the chart appears in Foundations of Psychohistory.
The timeline doesn't apply to hunter-gatherer
Hunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer or forage society is one in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was the ancestral subsistence mode of Homo, and all modern humans were...
societies. It doesn't apply either to the Greek
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
and Roman
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
world, where there was a wide variation in childrearing practices. It is notable that the arrival of the Ambivalent mode of child-rearing preceded the start of the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
(mid 14th century) by only one or two generations, and the arrival of the Socializing mode coincided with the Age of Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
, which began in the late 18th century.
Reports of selective abortion
Selective abortion
Selective abortion may refer to:* Sex-selective abortion and infanticide* When a genetic test is performed that detects an undesirable trait; see genetics and abortion* Selective reduction...
(and sometimes exposure of baby girls) especially in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
, Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, Malaysia, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, New Guinea, and many other developing countries in Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
and North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
explain why millions of women are "missing" in Asia. From the psychohistorical view, this demonstrates that the earlier forms of childrearing coexist with later modes, even in the most advanced countries. However, the chart should not be regarded as an accurate representation of the relative prevalence of each mode in the present day, as it is not based on large-scale, formal surveys.
According to psychohistory theory, each of the six psychoclasses co-exists in the modern world
Modern World
Modern World or The Modern World may refer to:*Modernity, a popular academic term.*The modern era, the age in which people today now live.*Modern World, a song by Wolf Parade from their 2005 album Apologies to the Queen Mary....
today, and, regardless of the changes in the environment, it is only when changes in childhood occur that societies begin to progress.
The Y-Axis on the above chart serves as an indicator of the new stage and not a measurement of the stage's size or relation to the x-axis.
A psychoclass for postmodern times
According to the psychogenic theory, since Neanderthal man most tribes and families practiced infanticide, child mutilation, incest and beating of their children throughout prehistory and history. Presently the Western socializing mode of childrearing is considered much less abusive in the field, though this mode is not yet entirely free of abuse. In the opening paragraph of his seminal essay "The Evolution of Childhood" (first article in The History of Childhood), DeMause states:The history of childhood is a nightmare from which we have only recently begun to awaken. The further back in history one goes, the lower the level of childcare, and the more likely children are to be killed, abandoned, beaten, terrorized and sexually abused.
There is notwithstanding an optimistic trait in the field. In a world of "helping mode" parents, deMause believes, violence of any other sort will disappear as well, along with magical thinking
Magical thinking
Magical thinking is causal reasoning that looks for correlation between acts or utterances and certain events. In religion, folk religion, and superstition, the correlation posited is between religious ritual, such as prayer, sacrifice, or the observance of a taboo, and an expected benefit or...
, mental disorders, wars and other inhumanities of man against man. Although, the criticism has been made that this itself is a form of magical thinking.
Criticisms
There are obviously no departments dedicated to "psychohistory" in any institution of higher learning, though some history departments have run courses in it. Psychohistory remains a controversialControversy
Controversy is a state of prolonged public dispute or debate, usually concerning a matter of opinion. The word was coined from the Latin controversia, as a composite of controversus – "turned in an opposite direction," from contra – "against" – and vertere – to turn, or versus , hence, "to turn...
field of study, and deMause and other psychohistorians face criticism in the academic community. DeMause's formulations have been criticized for being insufficiently supported by credible research. Psychohistory uses a plurality of methodologies, and it is difficult to determine which is appropriate to use in each circumstance. The discipline has the advantage of being able to deal with motive
Motivation
Motivation is the driving force by which humans achieve their goals. Motivation is said to be intrinsic or extrinsic. The term is generally used for humans but it can also be used to describe the causes for animal behavior as well. This article refers to human motivation...
in history and is useful in developing narratives, but is forced to psychoanalyse its subjects after the fact, which was not considered when the theory was developed and expanded. Recent psychohistory has also been criticized for being overly-entangled with DeMause, whose theories do not speak for the entire field.
The 1974 book in which deMause included essays of nine professional historians, The History of Childhood, offers a survey of the treatment of children through history. Although critics generally spare these nine historians, they see deMause as a strong proponent of the "black legend" view of childhood history (i.e. that the history of childhood was above all a history of progress, with children being far more often badly mistreated in the past). Similarly, his work has been criticized for being a history of child abuse, not childhood.
The History of Childhood, authored by ten scholars (including deMause), is often linked to Edward Shorter's The Making of the Modern Family and Lawrence Stone
Lawrence Stone
Lawrence Stone was an English historian of early modern Britain. He is noted for his work on the English Civil War and marriage.-Biography:...
's The Family, Sex and Marriage in England 1500-1800, because of the common ground they share in agreeing with a grim perspective of childhood history. But deMause's work in particular has attracted hostility from historian Hugh Cunningham. Thomas Kohut went even further:
The reader is doubtless already familiar with examples of these psychohistorical "abuses." There is a significant difference, however, between the well-meaning and serious, if perhaps simplistic and reductionistic, attempt to understand the psychological in history and the psychohistorical expose that can at times verge on historical pornography. For examples of the more frivolous and distasteful sort of psychohistory, see The Journal of Psychohistory. For more serious and scholarly attempts to understand the psychological dimension of the past, see The Psychohistory Review.
DeMause and the psychohistorians respond that their detractors are not largely moved by evidence, but rather are unconsciously motivated to attack those who would challenge the idea of "good parenting" even in very primitive tribes or cultures.
Organizations
The principal center for psychohistorical study is The Institute for Psychohistory founded by Lloyd deMause which has 19 branches around the globe and has for over 30 years and published the The Journal of PsychohistoryJournal of Psychohistory
The Journal of Psychohistory is a journal in the field of psychohistory published by the Institute for Psychohistory. It aims to provide "a new psychological view of world events — past and present"...
.
The International Psychohistorical Association founded by Lloyd deMause
Lloyd deMause
Lloyd deMause, pronounced de-Moss , is an American social thinker known for his work in the field of psychohistory. He did graduate work in political science at Columbia University and later trained as a lay psychoanalyst...
in 1977 is the professional organization for the field of psychohistory. It publishes Psychohistory News and has a psychohistorical mail order lending library. It hosts an annual convention.
A course in Psychohistory has been taught at a three universities at the undergraduate level. The following have published course details: Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
, City University of New York
City University of New York
The City University of New York is the public university system of New York City, with its administrative offices in Yorkville in Manhattan. It is the largest urban university in the United States, consisting of 23 institutions: 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E...
and Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...
.
The Psychohistory Forum, which publishes the quarterly journal Clio’s Psyche, was founded in 1983 by historian and psychoanalyst Paul H. Elovitz. This organization of academics, therapists, and laypeople holds regular scholarly meetings in New York City and at international conventions. It also sponsors an online discussion group. http://groups.google.com/group/cliospsyche.
Notable psychohistorians
- Lloyd deMauseLloyd deMauseLloyd deMause, pronounced de-Moss , is an American social thinker known for his work in the field of psychohistory. He did graduate work in political science at Columbia University and later trained as a lay psychoanalyst...
, founder of The Institute for Psychohistory. - Robert Jay LiftonRobert Jay LiftonRobert Jay Lifton is an American psychiatrist and author, chiefly known for his studies of the psychological causes and effects of war and political violence and for his theory of thought reform...
, a psychiatrist specializing in psychological motivations for war and terrorism. - Paul H. Elovitz, Historian, Psychoanalyst, founder of The Psychohistory Forum and editor of the psychohistory journal "Clio's Psyche."
See also
- Bicameralism (psychology)Bicameralism (psychology)Bicameralism is a hypothesis in psychology that argues that the human brain once assumed a state in which cognitive functions were divided between one part of the brain which appears to be "speaking", and a second part which listens and obeys—a bicameral mind...
- Child murderChild murderThe murder of children is considered an abhorrent crime in much of the world; they are perceived within their communities and the state at large as being vulnerable, and therefore especially susceptible to abduction and murder. The protection of children from abuse and possible death often involves...
- Psychohistorical views on infanticide
- HistoricismHistoricismHistoricism is a mode of thinking that assigns a central and basic significance to a specific context, such as historical period, geographical place and local culture. As such it is in contrast to individualist theories of knowledges such as empiricism and rationalism, which neglect the role of...
- Non-aggression principleNon-aggression principleThe non-aggression principle , or NAP for short, is a moral stance which asserts that aggression is inherently illegitimate...
- Poisonous pedagogyPoisonous pedagogyPoisonous pedagogy, also called black pedagogy, from the original German name Schwarze Pädagogik, is a term used by some present-day psychologists and sociologists to describe a subset of traditional child-raising methods which they regard as repressive and harmful...
- Religious abuse
- Trauma model of mental disordersTrauma model of mental disordersTrauma models of mental disorders emphasize the effects of psychological trauma, particularly in early development, as the key causal factor in the development of some or many psychiatric disorders .Trauma models are typically founded on the view that traumatic experiences...
- Helicopter ParentHelicopter parentHelicopter parent is a colloquial, early 21st-century term for a parent who pays extremely close attention to his or her child's or children's experiences and problems, particularly at educational institutions. The term was originally coined by Foster W. Cline, M.D. and Jim Fay in their 1990 book...
External links
- The Institute for Psychohistory. This website contains over 1,500 pages of psychohistorical articles and books.
- International Psychohistorical Association. The professional organization for the field of psychohistory.
- German Society for Psychohistorical Research (in German).
- On-line repository of deMause' books
- http://www.cliospsyche.org. Clio's Psyche and The Psychohistory Forum: Psychological and Historican Insight without jargon.