Paul H Elovitz
Paul H. Elovitz, PhD (Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, 1937) is an American historian, psychohistorian and psychobiographer, internationally known for his almost half century of work creating the psychohistorical community, publishing/editing a peer-reviewed publications, and developing methodologies of psychohistorical scholarship.
Personal life
Elovitz was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, as the second son and third child to Jewish immigrants from Poland and Ukraine. He was influenced by their immigrant experience and identifies as a secular Jew. His first marriage to Barbara Rozenkranz, now Allen, resulted in children David, Laura Ryan, and Marc before ending in divorce. His second wife is Geraldine “Geri” O’Connell Elovitz. He served in the U.S. Army in Germany as a draftee and later marched both for civil rights and against the war in Vietnam.
Education
Elovitz earned his Ph.D. in modern European history from Rutgers University in 1969, with a dissertation focused on the Industrial Revolution and its impact on the English working classes. He also holds a degree from the University of Connecticut and completed extensive psychoanalytic training at the New Jersey Institute for Training in Psychoanalysis (NJI), where he was certified as a research psychoanalyst in 2019. He practiced as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist for 30 years.
Career
After teaching part-time at Rutgers and Fairleigh Dickinson universities, he began his full-time academic career as an assistant professor at Temple University (1965-1971) and served as a founding faculty member and a full Professor of History at Ramapo College in New Jersey (1971 to 2022). At Ramapo, he taught interdisciplinary courses in history, psychohistory, political psychology, interdisciplinary studies and the humanities.
Scholarship
Elovitz is known for his extensive scholarship in psychohistory, particularly in the areas of psychobiography, presidential personality analysis, and the psychological dimensions of historical events. His editorial leadership is most prominently reflected in his founding of Clio’s Psyche, which has published thousands of scholarly articles under his guidance.
He has organized interviews with prominent scholars such as Rudolph Bunion, Nancy Chodorow, Peter Gay, Carol Gilligan, Robert Jay Lifton, and Steven Pinker, and edited Festschrifts honoring scholars including Vamik Volkan, Peter Loewenberg, and Howard Stein.
His editorial vision has shaped psychohistorical discourse for decades, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration among historians, psychologists, and psychoanalysts across more than 100 academic institutions worldwide.
Presidential psychobiographies
- Psychoanalytic Scholarship on American Presidents[1]
- How Paul Elovitz Used What He Learned about Childhood, Leadership, Listening, and Personality to Become a Presidential Psychobiographer of Trump and Biden[2]
- George Bush: From Wimp to President[3]
- The Successes and Obstacles to the Interdisciplinary Marriage of Psychology and History[4]
- Presidents Carter and Sadat: The Repudiation of the Peacemakers[5]
- Presidential Responses to National Trauma: Case studies of G. W. Bush, Carter, and Nixon.[6]
Led or co-led scholarly initiatives
- The Psychohistory Forum (current)
- The Psychobiography Research and Publication Group (current)
- The Fantasy Analysis Project
- The Historical Dreamwork Seminars
- The Empathy and Biography Research Group
- The Trauma, Mourning, and Clinical Practice Project
These projects explored the intersections of fantasy, trauma, biography, creativity, and psychological development in both historical and contemporary contexts.
He has also contributed to the education of mental health professionals and graduate students through online and in-person seminars on psychohistory and psychobiography, partnering with institutions such as ORI (Object Relations Institute) and NJI.
Methodological Approaches and Innovations
- Created the Historical Dreamwork Methodology
- Psychobiography focuses on childhood and the bottom-up method, as opposed to leading with theory
- In teaching, role played historical personages and taught his student to do so also
Current positions
- Co-founder and convener of the Saturday Workshops of the Institute for Psychohistory, 1976–1982,
- Founder and director/convener, The Psychohistory Forum, 1982–
- Contributing editor, Journal of Psychohistory, 1988–
- Founding editor and editor-in-chief, Clio’s Psyche, 1994–
- Founder and co-director of the Psychobiography Research and Publication Group and the Psychobiography Reading Group, 2021–
- Part-time online professor of psychoanalysis and psychohistory, 2022–
Bibliography
Books
- Editor, The Many Roads of the Builders of Psychohistory (New York: ORI Academic Press, 2021)
- The Making of Psychohistory: Origins, Controversies, and Pioneering Contributors (London and New York: Routledge Books, 2018)
- Editor, Psychohistory for the Twenty-First Century (The Psychohistory Forum, 2013)
- Editor, Appearance and Reality (The Psychohistory Forum, 2008, 2009)
- Editor, Psychohistorical Explorations (The Psychohistory Forum, 2011)
- Editor, Special Student Edition: The Best of Clio’s Psyche, eight editions (The Psychohistory Forum, 1997-2005)
- Editor, Applying Psychology to Current Events, History, and Society (The Psychohistory Forum, 2006)
- Editor/Author, Historical and Psychological Inquiry (New York International Psychohistorical Association, 1990)
- Co-editor, Immigrant Experiences: Personal Narrative and Psychological Analysis (Cranberry, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1997).
Articles
- Author, “Searching for Early Psychohistory Studies and Usages of the Word Psychohistory.” Journal of Psychohistory, 2025, in press.
- Author, “In Memoriam: My Analyst Neil and our Shared Journey” Viewpoints, (fall 2023), pp. 14–15. With Inna Rozentsvit.
- Author, “Preface How do you Define Psychohistory” (p. 307) is the beginning of Ken Fuchsman’s “Psychohistory: Definitions and Standards,”Journal of Psychohistory, 50, 4, 2023, pp. 307–319.
References
- ↑ Elovitz, P. H. (2003). Psychoanalytic Scholarship on American Presidents. Annual of Psychoanalysis, 31, 135-149.
- ↑ Elovitz, P. H. (2021). How Paul Elovitz Used What He Learned about Childhood, Leadership, Listening, and Personality to Become a Presidential Psychobiographer of Trump and Biden. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 41, 527-539.
- ↑ Elovitz, P. -- H., & Jeansonne, G. . ( 1991a). George Bush: From wimp to president. In Zuckerberg, J. .. (Ed.), Politics and psychology: Contemporary psychodynamic approaches (pp. 99 - 116). Plenum Press.
- ↑ “The Successes and Obstacles to the Interdisciplinary Marriage of Psychology and History,” in Jovan Byford and Cristian Tileagă, eds., Psychology and History, Interdisciplinary Explorations (Cambridge University Press, 2014), pp. 83-108.
- ↑ Elovitz, P. ..., H & Shalaan, M. ( 1991b). Presidents Carter and Sadat: The repudiation of the peacemakers. In Zuckerberg, J. .. (Ed.), Politics and psychology: Contemporary psychodynamic approaches (pp. 143 - 173). Plenum Press.
- ↑ Elovitz, P. ( 2007). Presidential responses to national trauma: Case studies of G. W. Bush, Carter, and Nixon. Journal of Psychohistory, 36(1 ), 36 - 58.
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