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Independence of psychohistory

Lloyd deMause and others argue that psychohistory is a field of scientific inquiry with its own peculiar methods, objectives and theories and that it is separate from history and anthropology.

While psychohistory aims to explain exactly why historical events occurred, these other fields are only concerned with a description. As a consequence, according to these psychohistorians, the opinions of non-psychohistorians (such as historians and anthropologists) on psychohistorical questions are to be discounted.

Naturally enough, many proponents of other fields would contend that those fields do indeed study why historical events occurred, with causes of events being attributed to such diverse factors as climate, sociological forces, individual contributions, and many others.

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