In a tribute to the memory of Edward Hitschmann, who was interested in biography and applied psychoanalysis, the author, a literary historian, discusses biography and psychoanalysis. He describes the means and goals of the two disciplines and expresses personal horror at the misapplied psychoanalysis used in current literary journals where psychoanalytic language and ideas distract and confuse rather than truly portray. He quotes from Jones's biography of Freud to illustrate how biography ought not to be written; when the literary biographer borrows from the shorthand of psychoanalysis it is his duty to decipher and translate it. Psychoanalytic language is not the language of the people or of literature or literary criticism.