Studies of Life Positioning: A New Sociocultural Approach to Psychobiography (Advances in Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology)

This book illustrates how Life Positioning Analysis can be used as a theoretical and methodological approach to sociocultural psychobiography. Life positioning psychobiography studies lives as they unfold within a world of interactivity. It recognizes and portrays us as social beings embedded and developing within our life relationships and circumstances and striving to make something of our lives. Here, Jack Martin presents both single-subject and dual-subject studies of social psychologist Stanley Milgram, former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, existential humanist Ernest Becker, American heiress and child advocate Dorothy Burlingham and her life partner, renowned psychoanalyst Anna Freud, and indigenous athlete Jim Thorpe and his college coach Glenn “Pop” Warner. These case studies provide vividly memorable demonstrations of how we are positioned by circumstances and others, and come to position ourselves as socioculturally constituted, psychological persons. In so doing, they offer a systematic framework for studying the lives of people that shows sociocultural and social psychological development without resorting to mentalistic theories, concepts, and interpretations. The book will be of interest to students and scholars in areas related to sociocultural and developmental psychology, the psychology and sociology of personhood, theoretical psychology, qualitative methodology, and social science and life writing more generally. Cover Half Title Series Information Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents Series Foreword 1 A Psychobiography of Life Positioning Author’s Introduction What Is Life Positioning? Psychobiography and Life Positioning Position Exchange and Positioning and Repositioning Position Exchange Life Positioning and Repositioning Symmetrical and Asymmetrical Life Positioning Life Positioning Analysis (LPA) as Sociocultural Psychobiography Note References 2 Stanley Milgram’s Penchant for Revealing and Concealing Author’s Introduction From “Hide” and “Seek” to “Conceal” and “Reveal” Early Life Higher Education Milgram at Yale: Studies in Obedience to Authority Why Did Milgram Conduct His Famous Experiments On Obedience to Authority? References 3 Pierre Elliott Trudeau and the 1970 October Crisis in the Canadian Province of Quebec Author’s Introduction The Controversy Concerning the October Crisis of 1970 and the War Measures Act A Bicultural Childhood and Jesuit Education Trudeau’s Childhood Trudeau’s Schooling and Adolescence Young Trudeau as a Right-Wing Corporatist Revolutionary Trudeau’s Educational and Personal Repositioning New Perspectives and Possibilities at Harvard Personalism in Paris London, Laski, Federalism, and Pluralism Globe-Trotting and Self-Testing Further Years of Experimentation, Self-Development, and Searching for Possibilities From Trudeaumania to the October Crisis Why Trudeau Invoked the War Measures Act: A Life Positioning Account References 4 Ernest Becker’s Quest for a Philosophical Anthropology By Way of Human Evil Author’s Introduction Becker’s Life and Career Before SFU Becker’s Scholarship Before SFU: Framing His Philosophical Anthropology Becker’s Scholarly Breakthrough at SFU: Linking Fear of Death With Human Evil Connecting Becker’s Life and Work: A Life Positioning Storyline Note References 5 The Symmetrical Relationship and Conjoint Agency of Dorothy Burlingham and Anna Freud Author’s Introduction The Early Life of Dorothy Burlingham The Early Life of Anna Freud Dorothy and Anna Together A Dual Life Positioning Storyline References 6 The Asymmetrical, Manipulative Relationship Between Jim Thorpe and Pop Warner Author’s Introduction Carlisle: The Sociocultural and Institutional Positioning of Native Americans Pop Warner Before Carlisle Jim Thorpe Before Carlisle Jim and Pop at Carlisle The Relationship Between Jim Thorpe and Pop Warner The Sordid Saga of Thorpe’s Olympic Medals: A Life Positioning Storyline of Racism, Privilege, and Injustice The 1912 Olympics The Aftermath The Cover-Up Asymmetrical Legacies A Summary, Dual-Life Positioning Storyline References 7 Revisitings, Reflections, and Critical Considerations Author’s Introduction The Basic Premises of Life Positioning as Sociocultural Psychobiography Why LPA Uses a Flexible Methodology Revisiting the Five Life Positioning Psychobiographies Reflections On the Single-Subject Studies Reflections On the Dual-Subject Studies Further Critical Considerations Psychology as the Life Positioning of Persons References Index