Hi

Reminds me of the movie "The Boys from Brazil," in which Hitler was
cloned and then extreme efforts taken to reproduce his early
environment.  I wonder if Lovaas would also have argued that he could
take any boy at 4 or 5 and turn out a Hitler?

Take care
Jim

James M. Clark
Professor of Psychology
204-786-9757
204-774-4134 Fax
j.cl...@uwinnipeg.ca

>>> Paul Brandon <paul.bran...@mnsu.edu> 27-Aug-10 2:45:23 PM >>>
Beth--

A bit of hyperbole maybe, but do you think that Hitler's personality
was totally genetically determined?
What makes the statement so astounding?
Hitler (and Stalin, and Mao, et.al.) were human beings, not demons.
There were many reasons why they were what they were; the fact that
they were in positions to do terrible harm doesn't mean that many other
people in the same circumstances would not have been just as bad.
Behavior can be changed.
In many ways, I'd prefer Lovaas's (over)optimism to a fatalism that
simply demonizes people.

Paul Brandon
Emeritus Professor of Psychology
Minnesota State University, Mankato
paul.bran...@mnsu.edu 

On Aug 27, 2010, at 2:06 PM, Beth Benoit wrote:

>  
> I just finished reading another obituary for O. Ivar Lovaas, which
ended with this astounding statement:
> 
> To the end of his career, Dr. Lovaas was adamant that applied
behavior analysis was supremely useful in childhood interventions of all
kinds.
> 
> *If I had gotten Hitler here at U.C.L.A. at the age of 4 or 5,*
he told Los Angeles magazine in 2004, *I could have raised him to be a
nice person.*
> 
> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/health/23lovaas.html 



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