In 1958 William L. Langer, in a well-known presidential address to the American Historical Association, declared the informed use of psychoanalytic depth psychology as "the next assignment" for professional historians. Psychoanalysis and History, volume 31 of The Annual of Psychoanalysis, examines the degree to which Langer's directive has been realized in the intervening 45 years.Section I makes the case for psychobiography in the lives of historical figures and exemplifies this perspective with analytically informed studies of the art of Wassily Kandinsky; the films of Stanley Kubrick; and the anti-Semitism of Adolf Hitler. Section II reviews Freud's own psychohistorical contributions and then considers the relevance to historical inquiry of the more recent perspectives of Winnicott, Kernberg, and Kohut.Section III explores an intriguing tributary of psychobiographical inquiry: the impact of the biographer's own subjectivity on his or her work.

Part I: The Case for Psychobiography. Itzkowitz, Volkan, Psychobiography: Terminable and Interminable. Izenberg, Intellectual-Cultural History and Psychobiography: The Case of Kandinsky. Cocks, Stanley Kubrick's Dream Machine: Psychoanalysis, Film, and History. Epstein, Unconscious Roots of Hitler's Anti-Semitism. Part II: Freud and Beyond. Elms, Sigmund Freud, Psychohistorian. Anderson, Recent Psychoanalytic Theorists and Their Relevance to Psychobiography: Winnicott, Kernberg, and Kohut. Part III: The Author's Journey. Moraitis, The Ghost in the Biographer's Machine. Strozier, Autobiographical Reflections on Writing the Biography of Heinz Kohut. Runyan, From the Study of Lives and Psychohistory to Historicizing Psychology: A Conceptual Journey. Part IV: Psychoanalytic Approaches to the Study of American Presidents. Elovitz, Psychoanalytic Scholarship on American Presidents. Marvick, Notes Toward a Psychoanalytic Perspective on Three Virginia "Founding Fathers." Glad, When Presidents Are "Tough." Part V: Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Religious History. Meissner, Methodological Issues in the Psychohistory-Psychobiography of Religious Figures. Kakar, Seduction and the Spirit: Desire and the Spiritual Quest. Kobrin, Psychoanalytic Notes on Osama bin Laden and His Jihad Against the Jews and the Crusaders. Part VI: Psychoanalytic History and Culture. Kohut, Psychoanalysis as Psychohistory or Why Psychotherapists Cannot Afford to Ignore Culture. Binion, Traumatic Reliving in History. Mazlish, The Past and Future of Psychohistory.