Divide and Multiply: Comparative Theory and Methodology in Multiple Case Psychobiography

Abstract Since the inception of psychobiography as a method for studying lives (Freud, 1910/1957), the field has primarily focused on in-depth empirical analyses of the single case. Over the course of the last century, analytical approaches and methods have grown more complex, taking into account an ever-increasing set of variables, including context, the environment, and close relationships. The field has begun to move away from exclusive analysis of the single case and is now, with more frequency than ever before, focusing on both interactions between people and comparisons among small groups of people. Several psychobiographers have already adopted the analysis of multiple subjects as an appropriate tack for their studies (e.g., Schultz, chap. 3 this vol.). As the field of psychology in general focuses more on close relationships (e.g., at-tachment theory) and interaction schemas (e.g., Baldwin, 1995), psychobiographers will likely be rewarded with even more sophisticated theoretical tools with which to undertake multiple case comparative psychobiographical research.