Contrary Imaginations: A Psychological Study of the English Schoolboy (Pelican Books)

Originally published in 1966, Contrary Imaginations 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 then 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. Although he analyses the results of basic research, and draws on two disciplines famous for their complexity, he uses a minimum of technicality or jargon. The schoolboys themselves emerge from the statistical evidence as individuals; and the book is written with a clarity and directness of style which renders the world of psychological research accessible to anyone interested in schoolchildren, in psychology, or in both.