This psychobiography aimed to uncover the characteristics of optimal personality functioning (OPF) across the lifespan of Chabani Manganyi (1940–2024), the first Black South African clinical psychologist. The methodology used in this study encompassed an existential Franklian scholarly psychobiography. Sources of data on Manganyi included only publicly available primary and secondary data. Primary sources included Manganyi’s own writings, such as his autobiography, as well as his academic publications, including the biographies he wrote on creative individuals such as Gordimer, Sekoto and Mphahlele. Secondary sources included scholarly publications by academics and colleagues who knew him, as well as tributes, historical accounts, and archival records related to South African psychology scholarship during apartheid and the country’s transition to democracy. The study’s data sources were captured using online research platforms and search engines that included EBSCOhost, ResearchGate, Google Scholar, the University of the Free State’s Kovsie Catalogue and ProQuest. Alexander’s (1988, 1990) biographical approach, which lists nine indicators of thematic salience (i.e., uniqueness, negation, emphasis, primacy, frequency, error or distortion, isolation, incompletion, and omission) were utilized for the identification, extraction and compilation of salient data for analysis, alongside Frankl’s proposed nine characteristics of optimal personality functioning. Findings revealed that Manganyi personified characteristics of self-determining action, which were consistently evident in his pursuit of education, his intellectual independence, and his scholarly innovations in the field of South African psychology. Manganyi also personified a sense of self-transcendence, primarily expressed through his scholarship, mentorship, and social advocacy. He consistently positioned his dedication to work in his search for broader societal comprehension and transformation, beyond his personal advancement. Manganyi also exhibited qualities of future-directedness, work as vocation, and the search for meaning in resilient living, serving as a role model in managing challenging life and historical circumstances in transformative ways. The findings align with Frankl’s existential characteristics of optimal personality functioning as applied within this scholarly psychobiographical approach, highlighting its cross-cultural transportability in studying historical figures.
Mtimkulu et al. (Thu,) studied this question.