Bucking the tide in family violence research.

This autobiographical article recounts a 60-year career on research and teaching, 40 of which focused on interpersonal violence against other family members. Much of that research was carried despite prevailing beliefs which characterized either the methodology or the theory to be wrong. The article illustrates four underlining themes: iconoclasm; capitalizing on chance occurrences to select research topics; the conflict between ideology, evidence, and steps taken by critics to deny or discredit the results of my research; and the role of the personal history and the personality of the researcher in molding a scientific career.