Historically speaking, the term psychohistory has acquired a somewhat narrow meaning. For the most part, psychohistory has been taken to mean the psychological interpretation of historical events and personalities. Initially, these psychological interpretations relied almost exclusively on psychoanalytic theory. Even when the theoretical orientation is not psychoanalytic, the methodological approach remains so. That is, the interpretation proceeds in a manner very similar to that of a clinical analysis. The raw facts of history and biography are discussed in qualitative rather than quantitative terms.
Dean Keith Simonton (Sat,) studied this question.