[en] Eigenstates of the shell model are obtained by diagonalization of the Hamiltonian submatrix defined by a given shell model subspace. Matrix elements of the effective nuclear interaction can be determined from experiment in a consistent way. This approach was introduced in 1956 with the ³⁸Cl-⁴⁰K spectra, has been applied in many cases and its latest success is in the s, d shell. This way, general features of the effective interaction have been determined. The T=1 interaction is diagonal in the seniority scheme as clearly demonstrated in proton 1g_9/2ⁿ and 1h_11/2ⁿ configurations and in the description of semimagic nuclei by generalized seniority. Apart from a strong and attractive pairing term, T=1 interactions are repulsive on the average. The T=0 interaction is attractive and is the origin of the central potential well in which nucleons are bound. It breaks seniority in a major way leading to deformed nuclei and rotational spectra. Such an interaction may be approximated by a quadrupole-quadrupole interaction which is the basis of the interacting boson model. Identical nucleons with pairing and quadrupole interactions cannot be models of actual nuclei. Symmetry properties of states with maximum T are very different from those of ground states of actual nuclei. The T=1 interaction between identical nucleons cannot be approximated by pairing and quadrupole interactions. The rich variety of nuclear spectra is due to the competition between seniority conserving T=1 interactions and the T=0 quadrupole interaction between protons and neutrons. (orig.)