Contrary Imaginations: A Psychological Study of the English Schoolboy

First published in 1966, this title describes two types of clever schoolboy, the ‘converger’ and the ‘diverger’. The intellectual and personal differences between these two types are examined in detail. This description is used as the foundation for a more general discussion of the motives which lead men and women into the Arts or the Sciences, and of the qualities which enable some to think productively while others do not. Dr Hudson’s work is remarkable not only for the fresh light he throws on the relation of intelligence to personality, but also for his method. His research combines the skills of intelligence testing and psychoanalysis in a way which had not previously been attempted.