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Definition of "psychobiography" []

  • A biography that analyzes the psychological makeup, character, or motivations of its subject: "We are given a kind of psychobiography which ultimately pictures a deeply egotistical individual, unable to tolerate anyone else's success” ( Leon Botstein). (noun)
  • A character analysis. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "psychobiography" in a sentence
  • "BRACE: James David Barber is a very senior professor at Duke University who wrote a very influential book called "Presidential Character," and he employs a methodology typically called psychobiography, in which he examines the biographies of individuals, in this case, presidents, and tries to arrive at a judgment about their future behavior based upon elements of their past."
  • "Nothing about Mugabe's earlier life portended his swift rise, the South African journalist Heidi Holland notes in her "psychobiography" Dinner with Mugabe."
  • "There is a "psychobiography" by Stefan Zweig, The Queen of Scots (London: Cassell and Company, Ltd. ""
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