Cartoon History of Psychology

This is a paper I wrote in graduate school, believe it or not. The class was Western Personality Theories. It didn’t take me long to realize that this particular assignment, to show our understanding of one theorist, bored me to tears. So I asked if I could literally illustrate my understanding – which, after all, is a lot more work than cranking out a pure-text paper. I was fortunate: the professor was Carolyn Foster, one of the best. (See her current activities.) Her response was priceless, including:

“While my EGO was thinking “My doesn’t Tina understand Freud well, Isn’t she talented…” my ID was going, “OOH GOODY, FUN PICTURES, WHAT’S NEXT, HEE HEE… but my SUPEREGO was harping away: What would [the department chair] think of this? Is this OK for graduate level work?”

She ultimately concluded that it was, and even though it is not fully finished since the assignment deadline was set for the writing of ordinary mortal prose papers, I passed.

The scholars among you will have picked up on the bit in that narrative that’s most relevant to you: the piece that follows isn’t completely finished. If you want more, hey, clamoring has often worked. Especially when accompanied by chocolate, or a series-publishing offer.

If you have trouble reading it at this size, you can click on each page to enlarge it.

Hope you enjoy this serious academic paper. Ahem.

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