I am a PhD candidate trying to do a dissertation involving an expansion of a psychobiographical study of Nietzsche I coauthored a few years ago. Although I'm aware of most of the work on psychobiographical method that has been done in academic psychology, I don't know a heck of a lot about work on psychobiography that has been done in the humanities, especially on the biography of philosophers. Could anyone point me to any recent references in the humanities that argue for the relevance of the biography or psychobiography of philosophers?

-- Kyle Arnold (heteroglot@aol.com), February 17, 2004

Answers

Perhaps relevant is a recent collection of autobiographical essays by philosophers, edited by a philosopher:

George Yancy (Ed.), The Philosophical I: Personal Reflections on Life in Philosophy. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 2002

Yancy is also editing a collection of autobiographical essays by psychologists.

-- Hendrika Vande Kemp (hendrika@earthlink.net), February 18, 2004.

Hello Kyle,

Very interesting project--I teach a course called Psychobiography at UPEI, and it has been quite popular. I don't know of a psychobiography of Nietzsche in or outside of psychology--other than now, yours, which I would dearly love to read. If you can send me a copy of what you have I would greatly appreciate it! The next best thing is a biography of Elizabeth Nietzsche by Carol Diethe. While not a psychobiography per se, it certainly contains a detailed analysis of Nietzsche's family relationships, and Diethe offers the sort of 'family of origin' discussion you often find in psychobiographies. Her work, I think, makes it quite clear that a more detailed psychobiographical analysis of Nietzsche's life is in order. The powerful matriarchy, the very early death of his father, his poor physical health, etc: He is a great subject for psychobiography--as you of course know.

best wishes, Scott

-- Scott Greer (sgreer@upei.ca), February 18, 2004.