Jo,-~vnal of the Society for Psychical Uesearch Approved For Reieas4'~66blftfl CIA-RDP9&.,GD7921ROO0700660003-6 i REBEL WITH A CAUSE: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF HANS EYSENCK W. H. Allen & Co., London, 1990. 3 10 pp. Hans Jijrgen Eysenck was born in Berlin on 4th March 1916, of parents who were both professional actors. In the first chapter of this autobiography, we learn that his parents soon separated, and the young Hans eventually found himself with a father who later embraced National-Socialism, a pretty, young step-mother who danced in cabaret, a Jewish 'step-father' who had retired from being a Professor of Aesthetics to become rich as a film director and author, and an attractive, cultivated mother who guided his introduction to literature and kindled his athleticism, yet without ever being able to relate to him as a child. He actually lived for most of his childhood, in circumstances of relative penury, in the devoted care of his maternal grandmother, a practising Catholic. Physically venturesome to the point of folly, it was only by good luck that he avoided entering adulthood with a shattered arm and one useless eye. Precociously rational and intellectual, sceptical, self-reliant, adventurously curious and distrustful of dogma, he avidly explored a confusion of Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Socialist and Nazi values. The 'psychologising' that Eysenck explicitly forbids himself in the Introduction to this autobiography might plausibly identify in this first chapter the roots of the search for meaning and structure that was to direct so much of his later development, He had fallen in love with science even before he left school, and was looking forward to a career in physics. Eysenck calls himself undisciplined, wild, a bad penny and a sanctimonious prig at this stage of his development. For those schooled in the English art of understatement where self-reference is involved, this exercise in objective self-criticism may render more tolerable a narrative style which, even before the end of this first chapter, they might otherwise find uncomfortably self- congratulatory. Leading into Chapter 2, a wealth of often amusing detail somewhat conceals the heartbreak of voluntary exile, first in France and then in England, to escape from an intolerable Fascist milieu. As an extra turn of the screw, University College, London, found that his German qualifications did not entitle him to read for a physics degree, so he perforce entered the only vaguely 'scientific' course that would admit him-in psychology. By the end of the chaptcr he has acquired a First Class Honours degree and a wife. A son, a divorce, a second wife, and then more children, are introduced later. In the realm of ideas, it appears that the particular stance which has characterised all his work evolved quickly and early. Being a physicist manqué, it is hardly surprising that his approach to psychology should be 'hard-nosed'. This predisposition was reinforced by the college where he obtained his degree. There, the powerful intellects of Pearson, Haldane and Burt were wrestling with forms of statistical analysis designed for studies in which no accurate control of variables could be achieved. Developing in such a climate, he evolved principles and assumptions which he thought should govern a scientific psychology. For readers of this'journal, the most interesting of these is to be found in his assertion that psychologists should "plump for" that resolution of the mind/body problem which treats Approved For Release 2000108111 Book Reviez both as aspects of a single continuum. 'Plump' seems exactly the rig) verb here, in the sense of an abrupt plunge rather than a cautious choic although he himself asserts that the reasons for rejecting Cartesian dualism a~ "too obvious to require any supporting argument". Later in this review, considering the views on parapsychology which he developed much later, will be interesting to ask whether he considers that his plumping has remainc ghost-proof. Chapter 3 opens with Eysenck, most improbably., having afternoon tea wil Aubrey Lewis, who promptly offered him a job as a research psychologis Lewis, later knighted, was a psychologist manqué who had turned to medicir as a second-best and then achieved pre-eminence as.a psychiatrist, directir the work of the world-famous Maudsley Hospital. Of immense ability an influence, he planned to found a post-graduate Institute of Psychiatry with] the University of London, and he eventually found in Eysenck the design( and head of this Institute's psychology department. But there was no hint this at this first meeting. Eysenck accepted the job, at the Mill Hill Emergency Hospital for W1 Neuroses, and found himself free to design his own programme of researel Using an innovative combination of experimental and statistical methods, an with both the patients and the psychiatrists as his experimental subjects, b started stripping psychiatry down to its nuts and bolts. After years of work, his results challenged dogmatic beliefs in psychiatrN psychology, education and politics. When he went on to investigate the relatiV influence of biological and social factors in determining human characteristics his conclusion that genetic factors were important aroused hostilities whic on at least one occasion led to physical assault. Chapter 3 tells of all this, sketches in some of the science involved an charts progress up to the stage where he is about to be appointed Readei although not yet as head of his own department, in the Institute whic Aubrey Lewis has just successfully established. He tells also of the progressiv breakdown of his fitst marriage and the beginning of the relationship tha succeeded it. In Chapter 4, he tells of his survey of the available evidence on the value c the psychotherapies, and in particular of psychoanalysis, as treatments for th neuroses. He concluded that such therapies seemed to have little dernonstrabI value, and Aubrey Lewis agreed. Eysenck then went on to claim that the onl function of psychiatry should be to make practical use of the fundameriv insights achieved by psychology. Clinical psychologists should be recognise( quite independently of psychiatrists, as being qualified to design and us treatment regimes properly grounded in psychological theory. He propose one such regime himself, evolved from the work of Alexander Herzberg. Thi was the method of 'behaviour therapy', based on the view that neuroti disorders are concatenations of conditioned emotional responses, which can b extinguished by applying techniques fully described in any standard textboo on learning and conditioning. Working in a psychiatric institute, Eysenck's study of this therapy, an of the possibility that it could be administered by psychologists rather tha When he eventually made it public Z CIA-RDP§t)y-c'u'iJY42-RLU"'U'OTO'66it~tfir-'6- 99 > 0 L_ CL CL journal of the Society for Psychical Research [Vol. 58, No. 825 a meeting of the Royal Medico -Psychological Association, all hell was let loose, since the idea that psychologists could treat, except under psychiatric supervision, was an anathema. And on this issue Aubrey Lewis was whole- heartedly with Eysenck's opponents. In the power-struggle that followed, Eysenck's survival was helped by the fact that, by that time, he had achieved the cherished status of Professor, with his own independent post-graduate Department of Psychology within the Institute's structure. And not only did he survive but, against all the probabilities, he won. The research on behaviour therapy, and the training of psychologists to develop and use it, became one of the Department's main activities. In Chapter 5 he describes the part he played, an Id continues to play, in the controversy over the role of tobacco-smoking in the causation of cancer, cardio-vascular diseases and so on. His stance here reflects some very basic characteristics - his concern for the quality of data, and for the statistical adequacy of its analysis, his rejection of facile interpretations of complex evidence, his essentially combative (but certaialy not aggressive) nature, and (to quote one of his closest colleagues and admirers) his mastery of "the strategies of fair and unfair debate". In agreeing with, and extending, the criticisms of Doll, and others advanced by authorities such as the statistician R. A. Fisher, Eysenck has sometimes been represented as asserting that smoking iseases. is in no way implicated in the aetiology of cancer and cardio-vascular di In this &apter he disowns any such view, but states that the quality of the evidence usually adduced is inadequate to establish the relationships beyond reasonable doubt. One might ask, of course, what level of doubt is too unreasonable to tolerate in matters of life or death. Nevertheless, his fascinating account of his own more recent studies in collaboration with Kissen andAith Grossarth-Maticek, seems to show unequivocally that smoking has to be considered in interaction with personality and stress, if its effects are to be understood. In Chapter 6, Eysenck talks about his theory-building in the areas of intelligence and personality. These were the fields in which the writer of this review (himself a renegade physicist) had, for fifteen years, the privilege of collaboration. The friendship then engendered of gratitude and admiration must inevitably show through in this review, all attempts at objectivity notwithstanding 1 Chapter 7 is of particular interest to readers of this journal. Here we find him demonstrating qualities that only a few adventurous scientists exhibit in any generation -in his case, by insisting that well-attested data in the fields of astrology and the paranormal should not be dismissed without proper r' examination. He considers that his own contributions to the field of para- psychology have been modest - one substantial investigation which failed to find any evidence for precognition in rats, one theory (suggesting that extraverts should show more evidence of parapsychological phenomena than introverts), which has been well supported by subsequent experimental work, and one book (Eysenck & Sargent, 1982) reviewing the experimental evidence in the field. In the area of astrology, he concludes that, even when well- designed and prop erly-analysed experiments at first seem strongly suggestive 100 October 19911 Book R of astrological tradition, further investigation will usually lead to en plausible alternative explanations; and this conclusion is supported by he himself completed in collaboration with David Nias. However, a c, involvement with the French psychologist Michel Gauquelin and his c, become involved with a major series of 8 Fran~oise led him t vestige and analyses, and to the eventual conclusion that "the resultgeport, the Gauquelins ... suggest novel and hitherto unknown relatans be-, terrestrial life and effects upon it by the planets" (p. 252). Q Q The reader may feel that it would have been-safer to couch azic si( terms of correlations between planetary positions and certain Oracte of some terrestrial life-forms, without implying anything about(musalii alone its direction. But this is not the place for evaluation o8conch reached about particular hypotheses and controversies. What ism!levap review is that the account he gives of his studies in these fields w, illusl Ri not only his open-mindedness, but also his rigorously critical appcqach. What would have be en interesting would have been soml~ attern unravel the web of motivations which must have operated tocpersua( "psychologist they most love to hate" to expose even more of h9neck hatchets. We learn that the route to the paranormal was via studVof hy~ and a visit to Rhine's laboratory, but students of suggestibiEfy ha-, invariably, or even frequently, beaten a path to that particular d1lor. E~ asks this same question about himself, about motivation, but cha(Zcteris refuses to address it. The other question not explicitly addressed is as to whethel3e feel some of the parapsychological data are going to compel what Kuhn has called a shift of paradigm. He does not yet seem sure thalt"such is unavoidable, and indeed, in Explaining the Unexplained I T" _e fir. attempt to relate some 'paranormal' evidence to theories in qua~um P1 However, in the same publication, the question of post-mortep sun considered at some length, and the possibility not dismissed.r.,kre w( to conclude that Eysenck would be less confident in urging psaholog reject Cartesian dualism, today, than he was at the outset of his(gareer~ he prepared to postulate a curious kind of mind/body continuunJ2 not d in terms of the mutual trans formability of its two aspects? IJ5woul( been intriguing to be told. 77D To consider now the book as a whole; the author warns in hiOdntrod that he will not be over-modest. He certainly has not been, alth(Jqgh th( is not lacking in objective self-criticism, or in verbatim reports oJPe crii of others. If you are brilliant of mind, large, fit and athletic of&ody, a self-confident and combative temperament, the number of ~Upport, you have for presenting yourself as a rather average bumbler 4t be s limited. CL But the style is certainly self-congratulatory, and this is not tla:only of irritation. For example, any attempt to evolve a straightforwalM chroj from the discursive narrative involves much to-ing and fro-ing, and in fails completely, as one finds, for example, in attempting to deduce tl- of the all-important first meeting with Aubrey Lewis. One could also coi that, although the author says in his Introduction that he will "deal A 101 A fournal of the Society for Psychical Research [Vol. 58, No. 825 number of interesting psychological and sociological questions ("How does a scientist decide . . . " etc.), he seldom provides any answers, although he certainly offers relevant data. However, all this is just nit-picking. It is difficult in Science to attribute a C? great advance to what some particular person said and did, because all progress m depends on the collaborative conflict of numerous actors. Nevertheless, a Eysenck shows convincingly that he has been (and remains) a star in this Q C) enterprise. His avowed intention was to write mainly about his ideas, and the over-riding disappointment for some will be that the author has not perfon-ned Q the sort of strip-tease that they expect in an autobiography. Nonetheless, with Q a wealth of often amusing anecdote, he has happily provided a reasonably Q rounded self-portrait, which should surely dispel the cold- and- calculating, Q devil-with-homs image which his detractors so enjoy peddling. With his gift Q W for popularisation which eschews the jejune, he has again contributed to the C*4 history of ideas in the social sciences in a way which opens windows for those 0) I-- who might not otherwise have been able to see. And perhaps above all, he has Q set out an inspiring record of remarkable achievement, accomplished in E,.e Q (6 face of formidable obstacles, by vision, dedication, work, intelligence-and, ~_)f 01) course, rather more good luck than bad. IL In his concluding sentences, Eysenck mistakenly attributes to W. B. Yeats three lines of advice in a poem by Dylan Thomas; a mishap so greatly to the delight of.'some reviewers as to render them virtually incapable of commenting on anything else in the book. Let this review therefore conclude with some advice that Yeats undoubtedly did offer:- When you are old and gray and full of sleep And nodding by the fire, take down this book 00 And slowly read ... Q Q But why wait that long? Q Q 04 Faculty of Education and Design W. D. FuRNEAUX a) Brunel University, Runnymede Campus U) Egham, Surrey. TW20 OJZ M REFERENCES Eysenck, H. J. and Sargent, C. (198 2) Explaining the Unexplained. Book Club Associates. 0 LL Kuhn, T. (1962) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. University of Chicago Press. > 0- CL CL October 19911 Book Re PARAPSYCHOLOGY: NEW SOURCES OF I NFORMATION, 1973-1989 by Rhea A. W Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, 1990. xiv + ~99 pp. $67.50, X50.65. It is tempting to quote Mr Squeers: "r1t's richness! " at the sight of 3 i 0 , . , --sec, White's splendid volume. The book 9- -_ 3n the same linWs on~ 0 P a r d a compiled with Laura Dale, entitled, Para ychology: Sources ofIt4orma e s- thm twic( r u t t h e which was published in 1973, but the resent work is more ged aci i a r t e size~~Jf the original. The increase is part y a consequence of incre y p a- e, u in t t also it is partly due t a change in policy froracheing d et a _,d. u e r I y 18s one. b in ive or the earlier volume to bei g more comprehensive in t 0 e select g a number oeadings: under which b0 ks are grouped in the first0hapte h b 0 k s C contin4j with n t h e been expan from 24 to 27; an he numbering is 4 to .3 a-W chapter on Government blical e ch a w of the previou book. There i'as hasbec but the cha~pNter n encyclopaedias has been discontinued. A.Ver&instm cd /aa onIew iews o topics eo anon chapter ~w f Para yclology' covers, such -ap ycl.olog it _pr( research, the a~dven of electroni data-pro ces sing, exchanges beReen c n r' hangesI and parapsychologists, and recen changes within parapsychologycD As readers of the evious olume will anticipate, a rnaJoaomp( ume I (pp. 1-305) of this wor is th list of books in the first chapte4REach w0' an4 t e aut carries a reference num e hhor's (or editor's) name itilieavy b followed by the title in itali th the place, publisher and year o0ublic~ the number of pages, an h chapter notes, figures and%lustra 'y biby_ograp y, isted0nd e~ __oaching five hundred titles I etc. There are something - ntZy'nd a '-'c 0 followed by a brief ' -1 words-summary of the conte reviews from a variet~lofo -~io icals, usually including the JA SAR, the indexes list thors, editors, illustrators, tr2Mslatoi 'st and the JP. The T_ . 't a s q en , ical u ce, titles in another and,-,Vbject introducers, in one alpha third. There are also cha ters on rapsychological periodicals, ffganis and theses, as well as glossary f terms. There are appendas of containing glossaries an illustrations a list of abbreviations, and&e adc ri of the less-accessible p lishers. C14 a IV In any compilation of this kind the e must be subject' e elanent selection of items in uded; but I am s rised that some titles l9ve no included. Thus thr academic studies of 19th-century Spiritidplism, Barrow's Indepen nt Spirits (1986), A n Braude's Radical "'o-trits ( and Alex Owen's e Darkened Room (1 89) would merit codMeratii of Psychical Resbrch general works, J hn Beloff's The Importa ce rks, J Arthur Ellison' The Reality of the Parano Mal (1988), Charltz MCC) 'ison' ur Psy P Mena and the Physical Wo Id (1973) and Fiank Ti chical Phe, Betz, een Sc* ce and Religion (1974) wo ld be of value. (]Prvin z 1 h . as &rke-l Para syc ol a Bibliographic Guide (19 5) and Nichol Books on e Paranormal (1980) are usee 1; as are AndrewcljMacK, Apparitio (1980) and David Christie-Murray's Voices of the Upds Martin G rdner's How Not to Test a Psychic (1989) is an imotant item. There appear to be very few mistakes in this book, although I was su~ to see the historical section of Gauld & Cornell's Poltergeists (1979) w attributed to Tony Cornell instead of to Alan Gauld. But altogether t. 102 103