disinfozone/The_Info_Web
1
0
Fork 0
Code Issues Pull requests Projects Releases Packages Wiki Activity Actions

vault backup: 2026-09-21 18:07:25

Browse source
This commit is contained in:
disinfo.zone 2026-09-21 18:07:25 -04:00
parent 7ac5d56ba1
commit 269d7818d3
No known key found for this signature in database
447 changed files with 864 additions and 826 deletions
Download patch file Download diff file Expand all files Collapse all files

4
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/John Gittinger.md
View file

@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ location: Washington, D.C.
created: 2026-06-03
updated: 2026-06-03
---
John Gittinger was a heavy-set, goateed native of [[Oklahoma]] who in his later years came to resemble actor Walter Slezak, looking more like someone's kindly grandfather than a calculating theoretician. He had an almost insatiable curiosity about personality and spent most of his waking hours tinkering with and trying to perfect his [[Personality Assessment System]] (PAS). So obsessed did he become that he always had the feeling, even after other researchers had verified large chunks of it, that the whole thing was "a kind of paranoid delusion." Top Agency officials were so impressed that they gave the PAS a place in most agent-connected activities. During the [[Cuban missile crisis|Cuban Missile Crisis]], it was Gittinger who was summoned to the White House to advise on how [[Nikita Khrushchev|Khrushchev]] would react to American pressure.[^1][^2]
John Gittinger was a heavy-set, goateed native of [[Oklahoma]] who in his later years came to resemble actor Walter Slezak, looking more like someone's kindly grandfather than a calculating theoretician. He had an almost insatiable curiosity about personality and spent most of his waking hours tinkering with and trying to perfect his [[Personality Assessment System]] (PAS). So obsessed did he become that he always had the feeling, even after other researchers had verified large chunks of it, that the whole thing was "a kind of paranoid delusion." Top Agency officials were so impressed that they gave the PAS a place in most agent-connected activities. During the [[Cuban missile crisis|Cuban Missile Crisis]], it was Gittinger who was summoned to the [[White House]] to advise on how [[Nikita Khrushchev|Khrushchev]] would react to American pressure.[^1][^2]
### Origins
@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ Gittinger started working on his system before joining the [[CIA]] in 1950, whil
Gittinger built an office within the Agency that refined both [[Henry Murray]]'s assessment function and [[Walter Langer]]'s indirect analysis of foreign leaders. Once [[Sidney Gottlieb|Sid Gottlieb]] and other high officials realized how the PAS could help case officers handle agents, they gave Gittinger time and money under the [[Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology]]. Although a full-time CIA employee, Gittinger worked under Human Ecology cover through the 1950s. He supervised much of the Society's behavioral research and tried to interest grantees in his system. A charming man and skillful raconteur, he convinced many grantees of his theories' validity. He would leave people openmouthed as he painted unnervingly accurate personality portraits of people he had never met.[^2]
In 1962 Gittinger and his coworkers moved to [[Psychological Assessment Associates]], a CIA proprietary company in Washington. He served as president and personally opened a branch office in Tokyo, later moved to Hong Kong. The Washington staff grew to about 15 professionals. Gittinger patiently taught his system to colleagues but was never able to show anyone how to use it as skillfully as he did. His system was full of interrelations and variables he instinctively understood but had not articulated. Even after Agency officials spent a fortune trying to computerize the PAS, the machine "couldn't tie down all the variables" that Gittinger carried in his head.[^2]
In 1962 Gittinger and his coworkers moved to [[Psychological Assessment Associates]], a CIA proprietary company in Washington. He served as president and personally opened a branch office in Tokyo, later moved to [[Hong Kong]]. The Washington staff grew to about 15 professionals. Gittinger patiently taught his system to colleagues but was never able to show anyone how to use it as skillfully as he did. His system was full of interrelations and variables he instinctively understood but had not articulated. Even after Agency officials spent a fortune trying to computerize the PAS, the machine "couldn't tie down all the variables" that Gittinger carried in his head.[^2]
### Operational Applications