The irrepressible Michael S. asked: > > Wolpe, who hailed from South Africa ,furthered the cause of the > behavior mod technique of systematic desensitization.I am tempted to > assume that he was a leading figure of that paradigm. It seemed that > initially he published with another behavioral engineer. And some > kind of a rift (disagreement) between Wolpe and several behavioral > engineers took place ,and then he went at it alone. > If anyone recalls special details ,do send info my way.
I'm not aware of any rift between Wolpe and others (which doesn't mean it couldn't be). What I recall is that rather than being a "leading figure" of systematic desensitization, he actually invented it, all by himself. I also recall that he initially used psychodynamic techniques but soon realized how useless they were (so was the "rift" with Freud?). While systematic desensitization was his own baby, he did credit earlier work by Masserman with cats as providing the impetus for his work. He also gave full credit to Jacobsen for developing the method of deep muscle relaxation he used to counter-condition to anxiety. In my first year studying psychology, I was assigned his remarkable "Psychotherapy by Reciprocal Inhibition" (1958), the first description of systematic desensitization, and one of the earliest sustained forms of behaviour therapy. It blew my mind. Stephen ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Department of Psychology Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 2600 College St. Sherbrooke QC J1M 0C8 Canada Dept web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy TIPS discussion list for psychology teachers at http://faculty.frostburg.edu/psyc/southerly/tips/index.htm ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --- To make changes to your subscription go to: http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english
