Most baffling of man's seven ages is adolescence. A few years ago a commission of the Progressive Education Association undertook to find out what makes adolescents tick. In a monumental five-year study it examined thousands, collected over 600 case histories. Fortnight ago a Swiss biologist and psychologist, Peter Bios, friend of Sigmund Freud, summed up the commission's findings in a report on four representative youngsters named Betty, Paul Mary and Joe (The Adolescent Personality; D. Appleton-Century; $3).
Betty, almost 15, lives in a fashionable neighborhood, wears flashy clothes, is plain-looking, has an I....