The scene is Britain in the late 40's and early 50's. More specifically,
the location is the newly formed Psychology Depart- ment of the
University of London Institute of Psychiatry, Mauds- ley Hospital. Hans
J. Eysenck, then University Reader in Psych- ology, had an ambitious and
bold plan. unheard of for those days, which he was determined to bring
to fruition come what may. First, personality was to be mapped out in
terms of a small number of operationally defined, measurable dimensions.
Next, these di- mensions would be related experimentally to their as yet
to be identified underlying physiological determinants. This research
was to lead to a comprehensive model of psychological, social and
biological activity which would account for virtually every facet of
human functioning. To facilitate this grand scheme, Eysenck gathered
around him a carefully selected team of eager young faculty and doctoral
can- didates among whom I had the good fortune to be included, first as
a graduate student and then as a full-fledged academic. The guiding
model was that of the searching student rather than the unquestioning
disciple, and it was this spirit of directed but open- minded enquiry
which guided us in the decades which lay ahead. That Eysenck's
aspirations are not fully realized despite many years of intense
endeavor does not detract from the intellectual excitement of those
times and the impetus given to clinical psychology in the United Kingdom
by these remarkable beginnings.