History is the cultural science most open to penetration by the social sciences whose system-builders are attracted by the totality of human experience offered. Although it does not fit the natural science paradigm popular among the social sciences, history does have an affinity for psychoanalysis which in a clinical setting attempts to understand a particular human life in its uniqueness and complexity. An examination of two socially oriented psychoanalysts, Erik Erikson and Robert Giles, illustrated the similarity of the spirit of inquiry behind history and psychoanalysis and suggests that the psychoanalytic method of the clinic can be applied to historical data.
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