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The Significance of Psychoanalytical Methods in Historiography. H. Winnik. Pp. 288-295.
In William L. Langer's presidential address to the American Historical Association in 1957, he stated that psychoanalytic historiography was the historian's 'next assignment' and that this would bring about a 'deepening of historical understanding'. Winnik points out that when theories of incidental occurrence, rational human planning, or divine interference are rejected, interpretation by psychological methods becomes more relevant. He warns, however, against reductionist tendencies in psychological interpretation of complex events. In addition, he presents an analogy between the effects of the study of history and the effects of personal analysis: both help gain relief or greater freedom in the present by a deeper understanding of the past. He suggests that the historian should be more fully aware of his psychological involvement with the period he is studying.