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Article published In:
Narrative Inquiry
Vol. 25:2 (2015) ► pp.372–399

A sketch of Theodore R. Sarbin’s life

| Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT
| Naval Post Graduate School, Monterrey, CA

Ted Sarbin was born on May 8, 1911 in Cleveland, Ohio. He died on August 31, 2005, in Carmel, California. He was born into a poor Jewish family from eastern Europe, and died at his home — beloved by his friends and family, and acclaimed by his professional colleagues as a psychologist of distinction. This article traces the course of his life — with special attention to the formative influences in his education as a psychologist. As a psychologist, he became a significant critical voice — arguing for a psychology that would embrace narrative as a principle of understanding human life, and contextualism, as opposed to mechanism, as a world view.

Keywords: Narrative psychology, biography, social psychology, contextualism, critical psychology
Published online: 30 June 2016
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https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.25.2.10sch
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