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Article
December 1970

The Practice of Behavior Therapy.

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1970;23(6):575-576. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1970.01750060095013
Abstract

In 1958, Joseph Wolpe published Psychotherapy by Reciprocal Inhibition, and in it he presented three specific procedures for the treatment of three types of neuroses: (1) desensitization for phobias; (2) assertive training for problems involving self-assertion; and (3) sexual training for sexual inhibitions.1 In addition to these clinical procedures, the book contained some reports from the animal laboratory plus a good deal of Wolpe's own theory regarding the etiology and treatment of neuroses in terms of a concept he still refers to as "reciprocal inhibition," amounting to something of a cross between the neurophysiological principles described by Sherrington and the psychological theory proposed by Hull. In 1966, he published a second book in collaboration with Lazarus, in which they spared the reader much of Wolpe's theorizing and confined themselves more to the clinical applications of his techniques.2 They also added a brief two-page section on aversion therapy.

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