To the readers of The Journal of Psychohistory,
Starting with the Spring 2024 Issue of the Journal of Psycyhohistory, we began publishing Jay Gonen’s manuscript of 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 the second chapter.
Book Excerpt
The World and the Self in Early Twentieth-Century Literature, Jay Y. Gonen
Chapter 2: Thomas Wolfe: The Artist Devours the World
In his novel The Web and the Rock, first published in 1939, the American writer Thomas Wolfe set out for himself a very ambitious task: “This novel is about one man’s discovery of life and of the world” (Wolfe 1963, 20). It soon becomes clear, however, that such discovery requires, first and foremost, the discovery of one’s own self. In the novel Wolfe portrayed the protracted and recurrent struggles of George Josiah Webber, a Christian boy from a small rural town and a would-be writer. The novel includes skillful portrayals of the many persons whom George encountered throughout the years. Among these, the depiction of the rich character of Esther, his subsequent Jewish lover in Manhattan, is by far the most detailed. But our discussion will focus on the main protagonist, who had a very complicated personality as well as a somewhat weird physical shape. George had long arms, short legs, a head which is somewhat sunken inside his shoulders, and a bowed torso which produced a posture of a forward thrusting head. This over-all posture evoked a simian image. Among his childhood friends his gorilla-like shape earned him the nickname “monk” with which he identified all his life. His body image has thus become part of his self-conception.
George’s growth and development were shaped by the never-ending clash between two forces – the web and the rock – which always collided but which never fused.
Articles
Not Enough Room for the Both of Us in This Town: The Economic and Psych-Social Origins of Institutional Racism in America, Tess M. Nix
ABSTRACT: The story of racism in America is well documented, and, despite the current public controversy over critical race theory, the idea that America’s institutions have been historically constructed to benefit white citizens over minorities is commonly accepted by academicians today. African Americans, in particular, have been subject to extreme historical disadvantage due to institutional bias, ranging from residential ownership gaps and general health concerns to poor employment opportunities. Historians have typically grappled with the issue of institutional racism as a mixture of race and economic imperatives, with race as the primary driver behind the creation of the institutions to deprive blacks of civil liberties and economic freedoms. However, the origins of institutional racism may have stronger roots in economic and psychological than in social structures.
If the impetus behind America’s biased institutions is more economic and psychological in origin, then the framing of the problem of institutional bias around race would be addressing an effect of the system rather than an underlying cause. In other words, those attempting to create solutions to institutional bias might be looking in the wrong place. Thus, studies to determine the primary cause behind the creation and proliferation of biased institutions might be necessary to generate genuine solution-based dialogue around a root cause, rather than well-meaning but unfocused attempts to address the corollary effects of institutional racism.
A Post Post-Factual World, Seth Allcorn
ABSTRACT: In 2017, The Post-Factual World of the 2016 American Presidential Election: The Good, the Bad, and the Deplorable was published (Allcorn & Stein, 2017, The Journal of Psychohistory 44 (4): 310-18). The article explored the contributions that object relations theory could make to understanding a world split apart and polarized by spin and lies that become fact creating a larger context of divergent right vs left realities. Facts and accurate reality testing were becoming of little value having been compromised by, in part, unconscious psychosocial elements (Allcorn & Diamond, 2023; Schafer, 1992). In 2024 these political and psychosocial dynamics have led to a post post-factual world where “reality” can indeed be stranger than fiction.
Behaviorism and the Shaping of the American Mind (part 1), Marc-André Cotton
Abstract: Historically founded on animal experimentation, behaviorism made withdrawal of parental attention—or ‘time-out’—one of the instruments of its Parent management training programs. However, the question of the effectiveness, or even harmfulness, of this measure for children’s psycho-affective development is still being debated. The aim of this first article is to take a closer look at the studies that behaviorists claim to justify ‘time-out’, and to clarify its theoretical and methodological foundations. A second article in the next issue of this journal will examine the possible side-effects of ‘time-out’ for children, and the evolution of its social acceptability.
Keywords: behaviorism, operant conditioning, ‘time-out’, Applied behavior analysis, reinforcement, shaping, compliance, Child behavior checklist.
Psychohistorical Perspectives: Poetry
Spitfire, Howard F. Stein