Editing Psychohistory (section)

===Independence as a discipline===

Psychohistorians have argued that psychohistory is a separate field of scholarly inquiry with its own particular methods, objectives and theories, which set it apart from conventional historical analysis and anthropology. Some historians, social scientists and anthropologists have, however, argued that their disciplines already describe psychological motivation and that psychohistory is not, therefore, a separate subject. Others regard it as an undisciplined field of study, due to its emphasis given to speculation on the psychological motivations of people in history. Doubt has also been cast on the viability of the application of post-mortem psychoanalysis by Freud's followers.<ref>[http://www.cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/reviews/shrinking-history/] Review of ''Shrinking History on Freud and the Failure of Psychohistory'' - Reviewed in 1980 by Cosma Shalizi

: '''Note:''' The book under review criticizes the Freudian approach to psychohistory. It makes no mention of modern psychohistorical research, which uses different methods.</ref>

Psychohistorians maintain that the difference is one of emphasis and that, in conventional study, narrative and description are central, while psychological motivation is hardly touched upon.<ref>{{cite book
  | last = Davis
  | first = Glenn
  | title = Childhood and History in America
  | publisher = Psychohistory Pr
  | year = 1976
  | location = NY}}</ref> Psychohistorians accuse most anthropologists and ethnologists of being apologists for incest, infanticide, [[Human cannibalism|cannibalism]] and child sacrifice.<ref name="OnWriting">{{cite journal  | last = deMause  | first = Lloyd  | title = On Writing Childhood History  | journal = Journal of Psychohistory  | volume = 16 | issue = 2 Fall  | year = 1988 | url = http://www.psychohistory.com/childhood/writech1.htm}}</ref> They maintain that what constitutes child abuse is a matter of objective fact, and that some of the practices which mainstream anthropologists apologize for (e.g., sacrificial rituals) may result in [[psychosis]], dissociation and magical thinking.