Hans Eysenck

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Hans Eysenck bigraphy, stories - Psychologist

Hans Eysenck : biography

March 4, 1916 – September 4, 1997

Hans Jürgen Eysenck (4 March 1916 – 4 September 1997) was a psychologist born in Germany, who spent his professional career in Great Britain. He is best remembered for his work on intelligence and personality, though he worked in a wide range of areas. At the time of his death, Eysenck was the living psychologist most frequently cited in science journals.Haggbloom, S. J. (2002). The 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century. Review of General Psychology, 6, 139–152.

Life

Eysenck was born in Berlin, Germany. His mother was Silesian-born film star Helga Molander, and his father, Eduard Anton Eysenck, was a nightclub entertainer who was once voted "handsomest man on the Baltic coast".Eysenck, Hans J., Rebel With A Cause (an Autobiography), London: W. H. Allen & Co., 1990 (pp. 8–11). Eysenck was brought up by his maternal grandmother (his grandmother was a fervent Lutheran; after her death in a concentration camp, Eysenck found out that she "apparently" was from a Jewish family). (p. 80). An initial move to England in the 1930s became permanent because of his opposition to the Nazi party. "My hatred of Hitler and the Nazis, and all they stood for, was so overwhelming that no argument could counter it."(p. 40) Because of his German citizenship, he was initially unable to gain employment, and was almost interned during the war. He received his PhD in 1940 from University College, London (UCL) working in the Department of Psychology under the supervision of Professor Sir Cyril Burt, with whom he had a tumultuous professional relationship throughout his working life. (pp. 118–119).

Eysenck was Professor of Psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College, London (a constituent college of the federal University of London), from 1955 to 1983. He was a major contributor to the modern scientific theory of personality and a brilliant teacher who helped found treatment for mental illnesses.Behaviour Therapy and the Neurosis, edited by Hans Eysenck, London: Pergamon Press, 1960.Eysenck, Hans J., Experiments in Behaviour Therapy, London: Pergamon Press, 1964. Eysenck also created and developed distinctive dimensional model of personality based on factor-analytic summaries, bravely attempting to anchor these summaries in biogenetic variation. He was the founding editor of the journal Personality and Individual Differences, and authored about 80 books and more than 1600 journal articles. His son Michael Eysenck is also a noted psychology professor. Hans Eysenck died of a brain tumour in a London hospice in 1997.

Biographies

  • H. B. Gibson (Tony Gibson), who worked with Eysenck at the Institute of Psychiatry, published a biography of him.
  • Eysenck’s autobiography was published in 1990 and revised in 1997.
  • A biography of Eysenck written by Roderick Buchanan was published by Oxford University Press in 2010: Playing with Fire: the Controversial Career of Hans J. Eysenck, ISBN 0198566883.

Views and their reception

Examples of publications in which Eysenck’s views have roused controversy include (chronologically):

  • A paper in the 1950s concluding that available data "fail to support the hypothesis that psychotherapy facilitates recovery from neurotic disorder".
  • A chapter in Uses and Abuses of Psychology (1953) entitled "What is wrong with psychoanalysis".
  • Race, Intelligence and Education (1971) (in the US: The IQ Argument).
  • Sex, Violence and the Media (1978).
  • Astrology — Science or Superstition? (1982).
  • Smoking, Personality and Stress (1991).

Eysenck’s attitude was summarised in his autobiography Rebel with a Cause (Transaction Publishers, 1997, ISBN 1-56000-938-1): "I always felt that a scientist owes the world only one thing, and that is the truth as he sees it. If the truth contradicts deeply held beliefs, that is too bad. Tact and diplomacy are fine in international relations, in politics, perhaps even in business; in science only one thing matters, and that is the facts." He was one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto.