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Psychohistory is currently crystallizing as an important method of
historical research. According to Peter Loewenberg (1985), psychoanalysis
is to the individual what psychohistory is to the culture's mythology.
Psychohistory offers a broader range from which to view cross-cultural
differences. Many psychohistorians recognize undiscovered, primitive
territory that lies in the study of group psychology. They have discussed
collective group fantasies alluding to shame, blame, guilt, projection,
persecution, and paranoid anxieties as fundamental concepts in
understanding behaviors within groups and nations. For decades critics
questioned whether psychologists had any business considering moral and
political issues. Many continue to feel there is insufficient
justification for analyzing groups in individual terms, that it is
difficult enough making distinctions between individuals let alone
tackling group diagnoses. Thus, psychotherapists have long shied away from
psychohistory, claiming that it will lead to dramatic, wildly speculative
interpretations. After all, psychotherapy was originally intended for the
individual.
Psychohistory offers two important venues to explore as we delve into
conflicts involved in cross-cultural relations. First is the role
psychohistory plays in helping us understand cultural patterns handed down
from generation to generation, embedded in the very core of the group's
identity. These are expressed through mythology, ideology, religion,
childrearing practices, and the treatment of women. These ongoing
behaviors and characteristics are strikingly similar to those of couples
with different ethnic backgrounds. Second is the exploration of the role
that group fantasies play and the way they are enacted through
identification with group leaders who best play out the group's myths,
ideology, and omnipotent fantasies. These venues can help us understand
how the architecture of a culture can shape certain personality types. The
purpose of this analysis is not so much to assign a "diagnosis" but to
explore how the structural design of a culture can engender certain
personality types, which I refer to as the "cross-cultural" narcissist
("cultural" narcissist) and "cross-cultural" borderline ("cultural"
borderline), what psychohistory is to the culture's mythology.
Psychohistory offers a broader range from which to view cross-cultural
differences. Many psychohistorians recognize undiscovered, primitive
territory that lies in the study of group psychology. They have discussed
collective group fantasies alluding to shame, blame, guilt, projection,
persecution, and oedipal rivalry within the context of an individual vs. a
group self.
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