12
BEHAVIORAL
PSYCHOTHERAPY
For people who want prompt relief
from specific symptoms and who have
the incentive and discipline to practice
new patterns of behavior.
[M]uch of our suffering is just so obscure ... frigidity, social anxiety, isolation, boredom, dissatisfaction with life—in all such states we may see no correlation between the inner feeling and the way we live, yet no such feeling can be independent of behavior; and if only we find connections we may begin to see how a change in the way we live will make for a change in the way we feel.
Alan Wheelis, The Desert
Many of us today feel forced to adapt to ways of living that will lead to unhappiness, loneliness, fear, and illness. Is unlocking all five bolts on one's apartment door in the morning, checking that the can of Mace is in your purse, joining the sidewalk crowd to the subway, hoping you are not mugged (or worse), and then spending the daylight hours in a windowless office, in an atmosphere of tension, pressure, competitiveness, and cigarette smoke, with time out for caffeine (or, again, worse) and then a lunch soaked in alcohol a desirable and healthy way to live?
Behavioral psychotherapy seems to have been developed to respond especially to present needs.
Clients usually respond ... with a great sense of relief on finding they are not seen as sick or weak; they appreciate the positive orientation toward changing the problematic situation rather than dwelling on it.[[1]]
[[1]] Dianne L. Chambless and Alan J. Goldstein, "Behavioral Psychotherapy," in Raymond J. Corsini, ed., Current Psychotherapies (Itasca, Il.: F. E. Peacock Publishers, 1979), p. 234.
Behavioral psychotherapy is best known for focusing on symptoms as its main target, rather than viewing symptoms as signs of underlying problems. Like most generalities, this one has its exceptions; some behavioral psychotherapists are very much concerned with understanding the underlying causes of an individual's difficulties. Nevertheless, behavioral therapies do tend to aim for concrete, specific, and prompt relief of symptoms. They frequently are effective, and they are based on techniques that have been tested extensively.
THE THREE SCHOOLS
Today there are three main schools of behavioral psychotherapy:
COUNTER-CONDITIONING