ABSTRACT
In Decoding the Past, Peter Loewenberg has collected eleven of his brilliant essays on psychohistory, a discipline that has emerged from the synthesis of traditional historical analysis and clinical psychoanalysis. He surveys this relatively new field its methods and its problems to show the special contributions that psychoanalysis can make to history. He then further explores the psychohistorical method by applying it to studies of personality, cultures, groups, and mass movements, demonstrating that psychohistory offers one of the most powerful of interpretive approaches to history.
Decoding the Past is an impressive study that demonstrates the range of Loewenberg's own work in history and psychoanalysis and the full promise of an important and innovative methodology for others. His new essay takes up many of the criticisms and concerns raised about the method of psychohistory, and offers a cogent defense for its continued usage.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|33 pages
Psychoanalysis and History
part II|53 pages
The Education of a Psychohistorian
chapter |15 pages
The Psychobiographical Background to Psychohistory
part III|108 pages
Austrian Portraits
chapter |25 pages
Victor and Friedrich Adler
chapter |44 pages
Austro-Marxism and Revolution
part IV|79 pages
The German Case