Table Of ContentUNCOVERING LIVES
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UNCOVERING LIVES
The Uneasy Alliance of
Biography and Psychology
ALAN C. ELMS
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York Oxford
1994
Oxford University Press
Oxford New York Toronto
Delhi Bombay Calcutta Madras Karachi
Kuala Lumpur Singapore Hong Kong Tokyo
Nairobi Dar es Salaam Cape Town
Melbourne Auckland Madrid
and associated companies in
Berlin Ibadan
Copyright © 1994 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.,
200 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Catatoging-in-Publication Data
Elms, Alan C, 1938-
Uncovering lives : the uneasy alliance of biography and psychology
/ Alan C. Elms,
p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Psychology—Biographical methods. 2. Biography as a literary form.
3. Psychologists—Psychology—Case studies.
4. Politicians—Psychology—Case studies.
5. Authors—Psychology—Case studies.
I. Title.
BF39.4.E46 1994
920'.001'9—dc20 94-16699
246897531
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
Permissions
Several chapters of this book incorporate elements of previously published work. I would like to thank the
publishers for permission to reprint portions of the following materials:
Chapter 3: Alan C. Elms, "Freud as Leonardo: Why the First Psychobiography Went Wrong," Journal of Personality,
1988, 56, 19-40. Copyright © 1988 by Duke University Press.
Chapter 5: Alan C. Elms, "Allport, Freud, and the Clean Little Boy," Psychoanalytic Review, 1972, 59, 627-632.
Copyright © 1972 by National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis.
Chapter 5: Alan C. Elms, "Allport's Personality and Allport's Personality," in Kenneth H. Craik, Robert Hogan, and
Raymond N. Wolfe (eds.), Fifty Years of Personality Psychology. Copyright © 1993 by Plenum Press, New York.
Chapter 6: Alan C. Elms, "Skinner's Dark Year and Walden Two," American Psychologist, 1981, 36, 470-479.
Copyright © 1981 by the American Psychological Association. Adapted by permission of the publisher.
Chapter 7: Alan C. Elms, "The Creation of Cordwainer Smith," Science-Fiction Studies, 1984, 11, 270-279. Copy-
right © 1984 by SFS Publications.
Chapter 8: Alan C. Elms, "Darker Than He Thought: Jack Williamson's Fictionalization of His Psychoanalysis,"
Extrapolation, 1989, 30, 205-218. Copyright © 1989 by The Kent State University Press.
Chapter 9: Alan C. Elms, "From 'Nightfall' to Dawn: Asimov as Acrophobe," Extrapolation, 1987, 28, 130-139.
Copyright © 1987 by The Kent State University Press.
Chapter 11: Alan C. Elms, "Cloud, Castle, Claustrum: Nabokov as a Freudian in Spite of Himself," in Daniel
Rancour-Laferriere (ed.), Russian Literature and Psychoanalysis. Copyright © 1989 by John Benjamins Publishing
Company, Amsterdam/Philadelphia.
Chapter 14: Alan C. Elms, "From House to Haig: Private Life and Public Style in American Foreign Policy Advisers,"
Journal of Social issues, 1986, 42 (2), 33-53. Copyright © 1986 by The Society for the Psychological Study of Social
Issues.
I wish also to thank the copyright holders for permission to quote from the following sources:
Henry A. Murray, Explorations in Personality, copyright © 1938 by Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford.
Reprinted by permission of Oxford University Press.
Sigmund Freud, various works, quoted with the permission of Sigmund Freud Copyrights / A. W. Freud et al., by
arrangement with Mark Paterson & Associates.
C. G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, copyright © 1961,1962, 1963 and renewed 1989, 1990, 1991 by Random
House, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc.
B. F. Skinner, Walden Two, copyright © 1948, renewed 1976 by B. F. Skinner. Reprinted with the permission of
Macmillan College Publishing Company.
B. F. Skinner, Particulars of My Life, copyright © 1976 by B. F. Skinner. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf,
Inc.
B. F. Skinner, The Shaping of a Behaviorist, copyright © 1979 by B. F. Skinner. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A.
Knopf, Inc.
John W. Campbell, Jr., "Who Goes There?", copyright © 1938 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc., copyright ©
vi Permissions
1966 (renewed) by The Conde Nast Publications Inc. Reprinted by permission of the author's estate and Scott
Meredith Literary Agency, L.P.
Sam Moskowitz, Seekers of Tomorrow: Masters of Modern Science Fiction, copyright © 1967 by Sam Moskowitz.
Reprinted by permission of Sam Moskowitz.
Jack Williamson, Darker Than You Think, copyright © 1948 by Jack Williamson. Reprinted by permission of Jack
Williamson.
Jack Williamson, Wonder's Child: My Life in Science Fiction, copyright © 1984 by Jack Williamson. Reprinted by
permission of Jack Williamson.
George Bush, Looking Forward: An Autobiography, copyright © 1987 by George Bush. Reprinted by permission of
Doubleday, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.
For Dee
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many people helped me during the preparation of this book. Some are acknowl-
edged in the appropriate chapters or in the endnotes. I want to give special thanks
to those who read and commented on portions of the draft manuscript: Irving Alex-
ander, James W. Anderson III, Deanna Evans-Schilling, Robert Hogan, Heather
Kaiser, Lilah Koski, Karol Maybury, William McGuire, Gita Morena, Michael
Robinson, Mary Rose, Eva Schepeler, William (Todd) Schultz, Sonu Shamdasani,
Karen Sutton, plus members of the Bay Area Psychobiography Study Group,
including Daniel Benveniste, James Breslin, Marilyn Fabe, Bruce Heller, Peter
Ostwald, and Stephen Wallrod, and members of the Davis Writers' Group, includ-
ing Karen Joy Fowler, Don Kochis, Debbie Smith, Kevin Mims, Nina Vasiliev, Sara
Streich, Adam Bridge, Darcy Smith, Clinton Lawrence, and Cy. William McKinley
("Mac") Runyan read the entire manuscript and gave detailed feedback when it
was most needed. My editor, Joan Bossert, strongly supported the entire project,
turning an especially keen eye on the Nabokov chapter. My daughters, Heather
and Laurel, provided significant input during the prehistory of several chapters.
Most important, Dee and Josh gave me a study to work in and a home to share.
Davis, California A.C.E.
July 1994
Description:Psychobiography is often attacked by critics who feel that it trivializes complex adult personalities, "explaining the large deeds of great individuals," as George Will wrote, "by some slight the individual suffered at a tender age--say, 7, when his mother took away a lollipop." Worse yet, some writ
