From: Linda Zame <zame>
Date: Fri, 03 Nov 2000 22:51:44 -0800

linnea hendrickson wrote:


Can I recommend an adult book about the biographical process written by a biographer who writes very long and detailed adult biographies? The book is called Footsteps:Adventures of a Romantic Biographer by Richard Holmes. I have read the book twice and given it to many friends. It is an interesting and unique perspective into the process of being a biographer. As a psychoanalyst who is concerned with how people construct the story of their lives I found the perspective of the biographer in this book very intriguing. It is worth remembering when thinking of history or biography that 'truth' is always subjetive. No one is ever in possesion of THE TRUTH. Certainly in the analytic process the analyst doesn't know the truth anymore than the patient does. It is a construct that arrives over time and with exploration and is always open to change and mutation. A most amazing and absorbing process but also one that is quite uncomfortable for analyst and patient. I often think when reading history or biography we demand the truth because we are so uncomfortable with the ambiguities and unknown.

Linda Goettina, D.M.H.
Received on Sat 04 Nov 2000 12:51:44 AM CST