Psychobiography aims to understand historically significant individuals, such as artists or political leaders, through the application of psychological theory and research.
Through its merging of personality psychology and historical evidence,[1] psychobiography may be considered a historical form of therapeutic case study: it represents a growing field in the realm of biography.[2] Psychopathography is sometimes used as a term to indicate that the person being analyzed was not mentally healthy, "path" coming from pathos (πάθος)—Ancient Greek for suffering or illness.