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A Self‐Psychological Approach to the Study of Biography
Author(s) -
Hershberg Sandra G.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04357.x
Subject(s) - biography , psychology , psychoanalysis , history , art history
This chapter is an exploration of the psychoanalytic aspects of biography and the biographical aspects of psychoanalysis. The narratives that emerge from biography and psychoanalytic treatment incorporate elements of empathy, ideology (theory), and transference/countertransference and are co‐constructed within an intersubjective field involving the subjectivities of both participants, the biographer and her subject and the analyst and her analysand. I will provide examples that demonstrate the way in which these processes play out in the biographical realm. Correspondingly, I will illustrate the way in which the analyst's biography and analysand's autobiography change in the course of the psychoanalytic treatment. Salient differences between biographical and psychoanalytic endeavors are also discussed.