The life of Helen Suzman: a psychobiographical study

[摘要] Apart from the current upsurge in interest in psychobiographical research, SouthAfrican psychologists may be further motivated by the country's recent political history toembark on a study of exceptional lives or significant figures. A renewed focus on antiapartheidactivists could be of great value in the current South African context and theprocess of constructing a narrative of the nation's troubled past. Helen Suzman (1917-2009)won worldwide recognition for her role as anti-apartheid activist and parliamentary politician.She displayed exceptional resilience under trying and often hostile conditions and becameknown for her intolerance of injustice and concern for the plight of the disenfranchised.Helen Suzman's life has not been the subject of any prior psychologically-informedbiography. She was selected through purposive sampling as the subject for thispsychobiography. The researcher aimed to provide a psychologically driven exploration anddescription of aspects of her life within its sociohistorical context, through the application ofspecific psychological approaches to the available biographical data. The two psychologicalframeworks used in this study were (a) a stage-based dynamic description of psychosocialdevelopment (Erikson, 1963, 1997), and (b) a model for holistic wellness within positivepsychology (Myers, Sweeney & Witmer, 2000; Sweeney & Witmer, 1991; Witmer &Sweeney, 1992). The primary aim of this study was therefore to explore and describe HelenSuzman's psychosocial development and her holistic wellness throughout her lifespan. Thisobjective falls within an inductive research approach, and reflects the exploratory-descriptivenature of the study.Two methodological strategies were used in this study. Firstly, Alexander's model(1988, 1990) was used to organise, extract, prioritise and analyse the data. The indicators ofsalience helped ensure that all significant pieces of biographical data were carefullyconsidered for analysis. Posing specific questions to the data enabled the researcher toextract units of analysis relevant to the aim of the study. Secondly, the use of conceptualframeworks and matrices enabled the longitudinal exploration, categorisation and descriptionof the stages of psychosocial development and the components of holistic wellness,respectively.The eugraphic focus of both psychological frameworks enabled the researcher toexplore aspects of Helen's life in terms of healthy development and holistic wellness.Findings from this study suggested that Helen Suzman (a) progressed successfully through all psychosocial stages of development and accrued all ego strengths as proposed by Erikson,and (b) achieved a relatively high degree of wellness in all the dimensions and tasks of theholistic wellness model. Findings from both frameworks, furthermore, highlighted theinfluence of contextual factors on her psychosocial development and holistic wellness.This study contributed to the body of knowledge on Helen Suzman and thepsychobiographical approach. It, furthermore, provided a unique platform for demonstratingthe value and relevance of the theory of psychosocial development and the holistic wellnessmodel when applied to an individual life. Based on the application of these theories,recommendations are made for future psychobiographical research projects.

[发布机构] University of the Free State