Subject to Biography

“A fascinating and challenging series of essays… They range from theoretical speculations on the art of psychobiography and the history of the troubled relationship between feminism and psychoanalysis to personal reflections on [Young-Breuhl’s] empathetic connection to her chosen biographical subjects.”—Barbara Fisher, The Boston Globe

“Elisabeth Young-Bruehl demonstrates how psychobiography illuminates the complex relations between the conditions of people’s lives and who they become, explores the processes that mediate between the outer and inner worlds, and makes clear that the latter is no simple product of the former… Those recognising the importance of reflexivity in research can learn a lot from these essays. As knowledge producers, we can learn too about tolerating ambiguity and paradox, resisting the seduction of certainty.”—Wendy Hollway, The Psychologist

“In these engrossing reflections, Elisabeth Young-Bruehl expands our vision of the work of the past as well as of the work that is to come. Wide-ranging and insightful, Subject to Biography is also a pleasure to read.”—Jessica Benjamin, author of The Bonds of Love

“Elisabeth Young-Bruehl…reveals, with precision and candor, how she has brought her philosophical and psychoanalytic knowledge to the biographical task…she writes with unfailing awareness of the need to make herself intelligible and agreeable to the informed public.”—Paul Robinson, Stanford University

“A mature, thoughtful, and scholarly work, reflecting and embodying the experience of sustained research. With a distinctive voice and an equally distinctive capacity to take that one extra mental, reflexive step that deepens the material being presented, Elisabeth Young-Bruehl gives us complex, multidimensional perspectives on biography, psychoanalysis and feminism. It is a genuine pleasure to read her.”—Victor Wolfenstein, University of California, Los Angeles, and Southern California Psychoanalytic Institute