ABSTRACT
The four-wheel-drive vehicle plied its way through the ancient Sinai desert as the somewhat scruffy, quiet Egyptian tour driver occasionally turned the vehicle sharply to avoid rock formations embedded in the sand. The passengers in the vehicle, an American woman psychologist1 and her son, gazed intently at the picturesque landscape, only occasionally glancing at the nomadic-appearing driver. After a long day’s ride through the desert the driver broke his characteristic silence and asked the passengers, “Where do you come from in America?” The woman replied, “We’re from Minnesota in the Midwest.” The driver looked at her, smiled, and said in broken English “Ah, the home of the MMPI!” As their subsequent conversation soon revealed, the driver had obtained a masters degree from the University of Cairo, where he had conducted research on the Egyptian version of this widely used personality inventory.
