Feinstein, Howard M. “The Prepared Heart: A Comparative Study of Puritan Theology and Psychoanalysis.”

Feinstein, Howard M. “The Prepared Heart: A Comparative Study of Puritan Theology and Psychoanalysis.” American Quarterly 22.2.1 (1970): 166-176.

The author provides a very convincing comparison of the Puritan method of preparation for salvation and Freud’s technique of psychoanalysis. To do this, he uses William Perkins’ 10 stages of Puritan preparation and places them next too the stages of psychoanalysis put forward by Freud and Karl Menninger. Near the end, Feinstein discusses the differences between the religious and secular ideas focusing on the goals and the focus on self. In the end, both the author and I wonder if the links between these two ideas are part of the reason that psychoanalysis was adopted so easily into American culture. Links like these, how Puritan thought has influenced the country and shaped ideas that one would never think of are worth further inquiry.

Bib of Note:

Morgan, Edmund S., Visible Saints: The History of a Puritan Idea Ithaca, NY: 1965.
Miller, Perry, Errand Into the Wilderness New York: 1964.

Bell, Michael Davitt. “History and Romance Convention in Catherine Sedgwick’s ‘Hope Leslie.’”

Bell, Michael Davitt. “History and Romance Convention in Catherine Sedgwick’s ‘Hope Leslie.’” American Quarterly 22.2.1 (1970): 213-221.

This short article discusses how Hope Leslie melds the history into her romance. Bell divides the book up into three sup-plots: The Indian plot (involving Mononotto and Magawisca), the seduction plot (Gardiner and Hope) and the drawing room plot (mistaken love involving Esther, Everell, and Hope). The work provides an extensive plot summary with connections to historical events. Bell gives the intriguing, but in need of backing, argument that HL is a novel of American progress of tamed nature against “wild” nature, European tyranny, and Puritan artificiality. This is an interesting argument that could use more development.

Bib of Note:

Beach, Seth Curtis, Daughters of the Puritans Boston: 1906.