Biography: Hans Jurgen Eysenck (1916-1997) (continued)
Eysenck is as productive as Cattell. Both theorists have written a great amount of works. Eysenck's output is perhaps more extensive. We could see in bibliographies of his books a long list of topics, including introversion-extraversion, neuroticism, psychoticism, the automatic nervous system, the reticular activating system, behavior therapy, conditioning, intelligence, traits, smoking, crime and violence, sex and sexuality, genetic studies of many of the foregoing variables, and cross-cultural explorations to name a few. Eysenck has often written in partnership with Sybil B.G. Eysenck, his second wife, and he has coauthored several publications with Michael W. Eysenck, his son, who is a well-known psychologist in the field of memory.
Eysenck loves a good fight-perhaps his brief early fling with boxing should tell us something about this. At one time or another, he has been called many names, including "gadfly", "autocrat", and "racist". He holds that he has always sought, and will always seek, the "truth", even when it is, in the Greek sense -"tragic"- that is, when it involves two opposing rights. For example, it is "right" (or true) that people are born equal, but it is also "right" that people should have every opportunity to overcome disadvantages due to their difference from others. Eysenck has always been for the underdog, he says, but he believes that we can change things only when we know what is there to be changed.
Eysenck retired in 1983 and continued to write until his death on September 4, 1997.
