Summary A practical consultation problem is used to explain and illustrate the model of latent structure analysis. After an introduction, the model, its identification, estimation and testing are discussed; in a final section the hypothesis that visually handicapped people can be classified as “plucky” or “not plucky” is investigated. The theory of latent structure analysis is illustrated by investigating the hypothesis that two classes of visually handicapped people exist: the active and outgoing, and the withdrawn and passive. Copyright