Why B. F. Skinner, Like Freud, Still Isn't DeadJune 1, 2012, 10:01 am by Scientific American: HealthBehaviorism is back! That’s what David Freedman proclaims in the June Atlantic cover story, “ The End of Temptation : How the creepy science of behavior modification is reshaping our desires.” The article is, on one level, a hyperbolic report on apps that are “transforming us into thinner, richer, all around-better versions of ourselves” by helping people (including Freedman’s brother) overcome overeating, smoking and other bad habits. Freedman inflates this pop-culture mini-trend into a grandiose claim that B.F. Skinner, “psychology’s most misunderstood visionary,” who popularized behaviorism more than a half century ago, “may finally get his due.” Giving Skinner credit for apps like “Lose It” and “Habit Breaker” which I predict will turn out to be as effective, or ineffective, as other self-improvement programs is a stretch. Freedman’s article is nonetheless a wonderful illustration of a thesis I advanced 16 years ago in “ Why Freud Isn’t Dead .” My conceit was this: Ever since Freud invented psychoanalysis, critics have viciously attacked it, denouncing it as the equivalent of pseudo-scientific twaddle like phrenology, which held that skull shape mirrors personality. Countless alternative theories of and therapies for the mind have emerged in the past century, ranging from Jungian psychology up through cognitive neuroscience, behavioral genetics, evolutionary psychology and psychopharmacology. [More]
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