Abstract
Corrie ten Boom (1892-1983) was a Dutch Holocaust heroine, who at the age of fifty embarked on a mission to rescue Jewish men, women and children during World War II. Due to her efforts more than eight hundred Jewish lives were saved and Corrie became known as the leader of the ‘underground’ in Holland. However, Corrie was betrayed, caught and sentenced to more than three months solitary confinement, followed by an eight month imprisonment in the infamous Ravensbruck Concentration Camp as a Political Prisoner. In prison Corrie lost multiple members of her family. She herself was released physically, spiritually and emotionally exasperated one week before all the women her age were murdered. After the war Corrie worked tirelessly to rehabilitate victims of the war, opening rehabilitation centers in Holland and Germany. Corrie ten Boom spent the later part of her life ministering a message of forgiveness in more than 64 nations of the world. On her journeys she came face to face with one of her most vicious oppressors and forgave him. Corrie achieved multiple accolades in honor of her efforts during the war and after it. Corrie’s fascinating, courageous and zealous psychological profile as well as her exemplary character makes her a suitable candidate for a psychobiography. This study served to examine her life from birth to death in order to form a psychological understanding of her personality development throughout the complete life cycle. This was achieved by making use of Erik Erikson’s psychosocial development theory as the dominant explanatory framework. This theory was suitable to the psychobiographical study of Corrie’s life as it examined her life holistically, taking into account the political landscape of the time. This research made use of narrative enquiry that was in line with the principles of qualitative research. The outcome of the research highlighted the impact that Corrie’s most basic relationship with her parents and God had on her entire life cycle. Furthermore, it provided insight into the motivation that drove Corrie to put her life at risk for her fellow man. Ultimately Erikson’s’ explanatory psychological lens proved to successfully facilitate a fairly holistic understanding of the developmental stages that underpinned Corrie’s life narrative.
M.A. (Counselling Psychology)