Overview
Elisabeth Young-Bruehl illuminates the psychological and intellectual demands writing biography makes on the biographer and explores the complex and frequently conflicted relationship between feminism and psychoanalysis. She considers what remains valuable in Sigmund Freud's work, and what areas - theory of character, for instance - must be rethought to be useful for current psychoanalytic work, for feminist studies, and for social theory. Psychoanalytic theory used for biography, she argues, can yield insights for psychoanalysis itself, particularly in the understanding of creativity.Editorials
Boston Globe
A fascinating and challenging series of essays...They range from theoretical speculations on the art of psychobiography and the history of the troubled relationship between feminism and psychoanalysis to personal reflections on [Young-Breuhl's] empathetic connection to her chosen biographical subjects.
— Barbara Fisher
The Psychologist
Elisabeth Young-Bruehl demonstrates how psychobiography illuminates the complex relations between the conditions of people's lives and who they become, explores the processes that mediate between the outer and inner worlds, and makes clear that the latter is no simple product of the former…Those recognising the importance of reflexivity in research can learn a lot from these essays. As knowledge producers, we can learn too about tolerating ambiguity and paradox, resisting the seduction of certainty.
— Wendy Hollway