I never quite envisioned myself a proper doctor under that white coat, but I was interested in the idea of healing and in the psychological dimension rather early on.

In his later work Lifton has focused on defining the type of change to which totalism is opposed for which he coined the term the protean self. Home from the War: Vietnam Veterans—Neither Victims nor Executioners Simon & Schuster (New York City) 1973. (With Eric Chivian Susanna Chivian and John E.

He was an early proponent of the techniques of psychohistory. Robert Jay Lifton (born May 16 1926) is an American psychiatrist and author chiefly known for his studies of the psychological causes and effects of war and political violence and for his theory of thought reform.