The Capturing of Multitudes of things at Present Fugitive: Psychobiography and Bertrand Russell's Creative Quest

Abstract

As an alternative to current trends in literary criticism, this thesis argues that the rigorous methods of obtaining knowledge as well as the concepts and insights developed in systematic psychology and psychoanalysis can and should be applied to both creative writers and their texts. Though the relationship between writer and text is a complicated one, a synthesis of well documented evidence from psychology can illuminate confusing aspects of the personality infused in the work and can thus move the critic closer to scientific literary truth, without dehumanizing literature. The introduction outlines some of the reasons why psychological findings and insights should be useful and why there has not been widespread application of them in the humanities. Biography in particular, as an art form, can benefit from being psychologically informed. Conversely, the discipline of psychology has much to learn from the in-depth study of extraordinary individual lives" The first chapter provides a more detailed inquiry into the methodological problems associated with psychobiography and suggests some applications of scientific method to biography. The example of Virginia Woolf, whose life and works are particularly intricately connected, will be foremost amongst those used to demonstrate the specific problem of hypothesis testing. Some of the proposed strategies will be executed in the second chapter through a case study of the early life of Bertrand Russell, who provides a good example of some of the difficulties likely to be encountered, as well as the advantages of a psychological approach, especially since his life spans the entire development of modern psychology. The hypothesis about the origins cf Russell's creative impulse will be subsequently tested in the light of his creative works in the period from 1904 to 1914.