1. Character Strengths and
Psychobiography: A Case Study using
Walt Whitman
Ms Carol Saccaggi – 3 July 2014 – University of Johannesburg, SA

2. Walt Whitman – an Introduction
* Born 1819, died 1892
* Leaves of Grass – 1855
* One of the great
American poets
* The father of free verse

3. Snippets of Whitman
•Journalist? Editor? Writer? Poet?
•Leaves of Grass?
•Homosexual? Bisexual? Children?
•Racist?
•The new Christ?

4. Analysing Whitman?
•A product of his times
•An unconcious integrative American
conscience (Jungian formulation)
•A search for the idealised mother due to
unacceptable homosexual urges
•Narcissistic Personality Disorder

5. Psychobiography
•“the systematic use of psychological theory to
transform a life into a coherent and illuminating
story” (McAdams, 1988)
•GOALS:
• Enhance understanding of a specific
individual
• Comment on usefullness/ relevance of a
theory

6. Character Strengths –
Peterson & Seligman

7. Markers of Salience
Primacy Frequency Uniqueness
Negation Emphasis Omission
Error or
Distortion
Isolation Incompletion

8. Whitman on Whitman
I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good
belongs to you.
Song of Myself (1855 – Leaves of Grass)

9. Appreciation of Beauty
(the ability to find, recognize, and take pleasure in the existence
of goodness in the physical worlds)
• Identified by peers
• Feature of his poetry consistently
identified by critics
• Beauty in nature, people, events (Leaves
of Grass)
• SALIENCE MARKERS: frequency and
emphasis

10. Creativity
(the inventive characteristics of a person, product, or
process … where there is recognizable originality)
• Constant updating of Leaves of Grass
• Invention of new poetic form
• Observed by peers – brother commented
that he was only interested in his poetry
• Comments from introduction to Leaves
of Grass
• SALIENCE MARKERS: Primacy,
Frequency,Emphasis

11. Vitality
(organismic well-being in which individuals feel
energetic, alert, and fully alive)
•Imagery in poetry of life and nature
•Comments from ‘apostles’
•Identified by critics of his work – “in love
with life”
•Work in the war (ALSO – KINDNESS)
•SALIENCE MARKERS: Frequency, emphasis

12. Conclusion and Discussion
•Definitely able to find evidence of strengths and some
DEFINITELY more apparent than others
•POSSIBLE LIMITATION: Easy to find what you are looking
for. Danger of explaining by naming
•CONCLUSION: Useful explanatory framework, provides
ideas of what to look for BUT
• More descriptive does not provide explanation
• Perhaps consider using strength criteria instead
of saliency markers

13. Have you reckon’d a thousand acres much? have you reckon’d
the earth much?
Have you practis’d so long to learn to read?
Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems
Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin
of all poems,
You shall possess the good of the earth and sun, (there are
millions of suns left,)
You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look
through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in books,
You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from
me,
You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self.

14. THANK YOU!
Ms Carol Saccaggi
Lecturer, Clinical Psychologist
University of Johannesburg, South Africa
Email: carolsa@uj.ac.za
Tel: +27(11)559 4672/3332