Portraits of Excellence: Principles of the Physics of Human Behavior and Personality Functioning

Robert B. MacIntyre is head of the Centre for Relationship Therapy and
Education in Orangeville, Ontario.

Portraits of Excellence examines a theory of human functioning that is
based on an analogy to particle physics. In this framework, the major
dimension underlying human behavior is insecurity, with individuals
being characterized along a continuum from “high sphericity” (low
insecurity) to “low sphericity” (high insecurity). The author, who
maintains that insecurity cannot be changed, provides several chapters
of what are essentially lists of attributes and behaviors related to
this characteristic.

What can be changed are motivation, personal resources such as
attitudes, skills, and knowledge, and social resources such as money,
equipment, people, and social status. The book contains a variety of
algebraic formulas derived from particle physics that purport to model
the human characteristics being discussed. Although this may sound
scientific, there is no experimental verification that the physics model
applies in any way to human behavior. The various lists of attributes
and behaviors appear to come out of the author’s value system and
experience with no supporting evidence either from systematic
observation or experimentation.

Trait psychology of the sort Hill presents here has been proposed
before and considerable empirical work has been done to try to validate
it. Reference to this work is missing from Hill’s sparse and dated
bibliography. His book is also short on suggestions for the self-help
reader that go beyond those of the “work hard, use time well”
variety. Portraits of Excellence may be (as the book cover says) a
“portrayal of human behavior and personality functioning unlike
anything you have seen before,” but it is not science.