Starting with the Spring 2024 Issue of the Journal of Psychohistory, we began publishing Jay Gonen’s manuscript for his fifth and final book, written before he died in 2022 at the age of 88, titled The World and the Self in Early 20th-Century Literature. We will be publishing all seven chapters of the book serially — in consecutive issues of the journal. In this issue, we will be publishing Chapter 6 (Part 2).
Articles
Retrotopian Nightmare, Kenneth Alan Adams
ABSTRACT: Forged by the confluence of the abusive childhoods of Donald J. Trump and MAGA Americans, an archaic psychoclass has revolted against modernity, demanding a return to an earlier time. Masquerading as their savior, while serving plutocratic interests, Trump seeks to recapture the glories of the American past by mirroring the sadistic policies of the Third Reich and punishing internal enemies. The MAGA movement—a neo-Nazi cult bent on imperialistic expansion and the destruction of democratic institutions—is energized by shared anxieties from childhood— fears of maternal maltreatment, effeminacy, and pollution—and has launched the country on a suicidal trajectory.
Our Method of Bearing Witness, Howard F. Stein & Seth Allcorn
ABSTRACT: Distinguishing between witnessing and bearing witness as two distinct forms of observation is important to psychohistorians. We provide historical examples of how the initial phase of bearing witness to atrocities is an experience of chaos, followed by a range of unconscious and conscious coping strategies that contribute to or distort the project of sense-making. We then discuss the wider methodological contribution to psychohistory of exploring the disorganizing and stressful lived experience of chaos, the subsequent attempts at self-reorganization, and their influence on the process of bearing witness.
The Chaos Present in Bearing Witness: The Dynamics of Victims and Victimizers, Seth Allcorn & Howard F. Stein
ABSTRACT: Bearing witness to atrocities and the accompanying sense of chaos are an inherent but under-recognized part of psychohistorical research and scholarship. These may include psychologically defensive out-of-awareness dimensions, regardless of whether the atrocity is witnessed in person or in historical reading. The range of distressing atrocities we refer to in this article encompasses losses of life, losses of personal and group identity boundaries that provide a sense of place, and losses of accurate reality testing. Our intention is to focus on the triangulation of (1) the chaos resident in (2) bearing witness to atrocities, and (3) the accompanying distressing psychological experiences that influence psychohistorians when bearing witness to atrocities.
Courageous Women Cross the Divide: Liz Cheney and Cassidy Hutchinson: The Role of the Father and Father-Figures, Susan Kaveler-Adler
ABSTRACT: This paper highlights two Republican women who crossed the political divide, putting country above party, to expose the January 6th, 2020 insurrection atrocities.
Although coming from starkly contrasting backgrounds, they both chose to speak truth to power in the service of saving American Democracy. Noting the contributions of psychoanalytic and object relations theorists, this paper focuses on the role of the father in inspiring and energizing the voice of women and their outspoken gifts to humanity. The two women, who revealed their motives through their individual memoirs, allow us to see the subjective psychology behind acts of courage, as well as the tender bonding between the two women. The role of the mother in the development of these two women is implicit, as well as briefly explicit, providing a background for the father’s supportive influence that needs its own developmental outlines.
Book Excerpt
Louis-Ferdinand Céline: Individual Fate Instead of Group Destiny Chapter 6 (Part 2), Jay Y. Gonen
The First World War, which raged during the years 1914-1918, was a watershed event in history. Among other huge changes in the political face of Europe, it brought an end to the German, Russian, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman Empires. Because Europe after the war was so fundamentally different from pre-war Europe, it is sometimes thought that the nineteenth century, which nominally ended in the year 1900, actually ended during the war years. …. History was to show that this noble hope was premature, and eventually the war was renamed as the First World War.
Book Reviews
Psychoanalytic and Spiritual Perspectives on Terrorism: Desire for Destruction, by Nina E. Cerfolio, (New York: Routledge, 2024), Reviewed by Brian D’Agostino
Psychoanalysis and the University: Resistance and Renewal from Freud to the Present, by Max Cavitch, (New York: Routledge, 2025; 198pp), Reviewed by Valentino Zullo
Psychohistorical Perspectives: Poetry
Cobblestone Floors, Barbara Hyde Haber
electricity, Donald Mender