The Essentials of Behaviour Therapy

Abstract

The following four distinguishing features of behaviour therapy are discussed. a) Neurotic reactions are learned. b) People differ in the speed with which they learn them. c) They may be learned in later periods of life than childhood. d) If the neurotic reaction is eliminated you get rid of the neurosis. In discussion of these features, behaviour therapy is contrasted with psychoanalytic therapy. Cases treated by means of reciprocal inhibition, aversion therapy and negative practice are briefly described. Finally, an attempt is made to answer the critics of behaviour therapy and their main criticisms that: a) With removal of one neurotic symptom a substitute symptom will take its place. b) Personal relationships are ignored. c) The behaviour therapist's technique is too like brain washing. d) Behaviour therapy can deal only with simple symptoms such as tics and writer's cramp.