Psychohistory is the application of modern psychological thinking to the study of historical events and people. The field has been captured (in both the popular and the academic mind) by the attempted psychoanalysis of leading historical figures. This psychobiography began with Freud's own study of Leonardo da Vinci and has had a controversial career ever since. However, many other lines of psychohistorical enquiry have also been opened up including the history of psychological concepts like mind, insanity, the unconscious, the history of childhood, the social psychology of demographic movements and the attempt to unravel cause and effect in the change of attitudes over time.
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