Description

"A Troubled childhood. A difficult adolescence. How might these have affected the adult character of church founder Joseph Smith? Pyschiatrist Robert D. Anderson explores the impact on young Joseph of his family's ten moves in sixtenn years, their dire poverty, especially after his father's Chinese export venture failed, and his father's drinking. ...equally significant, writes Anderson, that Joseph's mother suffered bouts of depression." (from back cover)

Table of Contents

Introduction

• Understanding Assumptions
  • Current LDS Apologetics
  • Historian and the Supernatural
• The Methodology of Psychoanalysis
• Joseph Smith and Narcissism
• Conclusion
• Notes

Chapter 1 - Prolegomenon to a Biography of the Child Joseph

• Joseph Smith's Childhood and Youth
• A Synopsis of the Book of Mormon
• Notes

Chapter 2 - Joseph and the Sword of Laban

• Dysfunction in the Smith Family
• Nineteenth-century Magical Practices
• A Period of Poverty
• Difficult Times in Vermont
• Settling in Palmyra
• Conquest of Surgery: 1 Nephi and the Sword of Laban
• Notes

Chapter 3 - Joseph Grows Up: Nephi and Jesus

• Splitting as Joseph Smith's Primary Psychological Defense in the Book of Mormon
• Delusion and Deception in Joseph Smith's Adolescence
• Absence of the First Vision in the Book of Mormon
• Role of the Angel/Guardian Spirit
• The Death of Alvin Smith
• The Palmyra Revivals of 1824-25
• Public Humiliation and the Abandonment of Magic
  • The South Bainbridge Trial
  • Dictating the First 116 Pages
  • The Birth of a Deformed Son
  • Seven Months of Normalcy
• Dictating the Book of Mormon
  • Oliver Cowdery's Background
• Revenge and Compensation for Humiliation: The Second Nephi
• Notes

Chapter 4 - A Book of Intricate Complexity: Mosiah and Alma

• Polygamy and Doubt
• The Final Part of the "Small Plates"
• The Revival Begun
• The Revival Concluded
• The Order of Nehor
• Invincibility Confronts Overwhelming Devastation
• Notes

Chapter 5 - Regression and Recapitulation: The End of Alma, the Book of Helaman

• War: The Polarization of Personality into Extremes
  • Moroni, Zerahemnah, and Amalakiah: Good and Bad Alter Egos
  • The Harris Marriage
  • National Parallels: The Jackson Election of 1828
• War Continued: Invincibility
• Internal Corrosion and Inconstancy
• Notes

Chapter 6 - Descent into Hell

• The Small Book of Mormon
• The Book of Ether
• The Book of Moroni
• Notes

Chapter 7 - Diagnosis and Commentary

• Historical Context: The Treason of the Clergy
• Joseph Smith and Narcissism
• First Modification: Combining the Narcissistic Personality with the Antisocial Personality
• Second Modification: Pseudologica Fantastica
• Third Modification: The Imposter
• Projective Identification
• Notes