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This volume consists of seven essays, each by a different author and all but one published for the first time, having as their common element the application of psychoanalytic knowledge to the understanding of historical material. The book is cast in two parts, “Interpretations of History” (four essays) and “Biographical Studies” (three essays).
As one would expect, the second part, with its narrower scope, is, on the whole, more successful than the first. Bychowski discusses Joseph Stalin; Lowenberg, Theodore Herzl; and Waite, Adolf Hitler. In each instance the focus is further sharpened by selecting one aspect of the subject for close scrutiny: Stalin's paranoia as it affected his tyranny, Herzl's charismatic qualities, and Hitler's anti-Semitism. The last essay is perhaps the most effective, since it utilizes considerable personal data in a convincing manner to shed new light on the unconscious motivations of overt behavior otherwise inexplicable.
Part I of the book contains a remarkable essay by Waelder which addresses itself to the “Application of Psychoanalysis to Historiography.” It is my understanding that this paper is, in fact, the author's last published work, and, in general, it sustains his great reputation. It is not without defects; the author cannot quite lay aside his ideological biases. (It seems a bit strange, for example, to have to refer to Oswald as “the man who, according to available evidence, killed John F. Kennedy.”)