What is personality? As an appealing cultural concept, it developed great productive power within the psychological sciences particularly in the first half of the 20th century. But which set of tools enabled researchers to determine and diagnose personality?
In this study, David Keller reckons with the diversity of media and techniques that played a critical role in legitimizing 'personality' as a stable concept for the human sciences. By reconstructing research practices and diagnostic procedures, and by taking popular discourses into account, the work illustrates how the search for personality generated new knowledge and provoked further questions. David Keller shows how 'personality' became a continuing challenge for the human sciences.