Behavior therapy
Behaviour therapy is a form of psychotherapy used to treat depression, anxiety disorders, phobias, and other forms of psychopathology.
Behavior therapy is based upon the principles of classical conditioning developed by Ivan Pavlov and operant conditioning developed by B.F. Skinner
Aversion Therapy
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Aversion therapy is a form of psychiatric treatment in which the patient is exposed to a stimulus while simultaneously being subjected to some form of discomfort. This conditioning supposedly causes the patient to associate the stimulus with unpleasant sensations.
Many people consider some forms of aversion therapy to be harmless, such as: Placing unpleasant-tasting chemicals on the nails to discourage nail-chewing, giving alcoholics drugs that make the intake of alcohol unpleasant, or simply scolding a child while they are doing wrong. However, stronger forms of aversion therapy can be used to brainwash or punish one's natural urges.
Aversion therapy and same-sex attraction
Aversion therapy to convert same-sex attracted individuals to opposite-sex attraction, while more common in the past, is still utilized by some people.
This practice is in violation of the codes of conduct and professional guidelines of the American Psychological Association and American Psychiatric Association. Some forms of aversion therapy may be illegal to use for this purpose. This conduct also violates regulations set forth in many other countries.
In one example, in the 1970s and 1980s, suspected gay men and lesbians in the South African Defense Force underwent aversion therapy and chemical castration. Aversion therapy sometimes involved applying electric current, via electrodes, to men while they were shown pictures of naked men. The current would be turned off when photographs of naked women were shown.
Historically, in the Western world, injections of apomorphine were used, resulting in violent illness. At least one person has died as a result.
Aversion therapy and "sexually deviant" youth
However, forced aversion therapy is still sometimes used on children and teenagers who violate sex laws, especially those believed to have deviant sexual feelings. These youth have been forced to smell ammonia, describe humiliating scenarios, or engage in other uncomfortable situations, while looking at nude pictures, listening to audio tapes describing sexual situations, or describing their own fantasies. In order to measure sexual response, devices like penile plethysmographs and vaginal photoplethysmographs are sometimes used, despite the controversies surrounding these devices.
In 1992, the Arizona Civil Liberties Union challenged the Phoenix Memorial Hospital for its use of these methods on children as young as 10. They were defended by the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers. Since then, policies have usually discouraged the use of forced aversion therapy on children under 14.
Popular culture
Anthony Burgess explored the concept, and its moral implications, in his 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange.
A radio commercial in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas refers to the practice of aversion therapy.
The television show Robot Chicken opening has a scientist torturing a robotic chicken in the same matter.
Systematic Desensitization
Systematic desensitization is a type of behavioral therapy used in the field of psychology to help effectively overcome phobias and other anxiety disorders. More specifically, it is a type of Pavlovian therapy developed by a South African psychiatrist, Joseph Wolpe. To begin the process of systematic desensitization, one must first be taught relaxation skills in order to control fear and anxiety responses to specific phobias. Once the individual has been taught these skills, he or she must use them to react towards and overcome situations in an established hierarchy of fears. The goal of this process is that an indivudal will learn to cope and overcome the fear in each step of the hierarchy, which will lead to overcoming the last step of the fear in the hierarchy. Systematic desensitization is sometimes called graduated exposure therapy.
Clinical Procedure
Specific phobias are one class of mental illness often treated through the cognitive-behavioral process of systematic desensitization. When individuals possess irrational fears of an object, they tend to avoid it. Since escaping from the phobic object reduces their anxiety, patients’ behavior to reduce fear is reinforced through negative reinforcement a concept defined in operant conditioning. The goal of SD is to overcome this avoidance pattern by gradually exposing patients to the phobic object until it can be tolerated. In classical conditioning terms the elicitation of the fear response is extinguished to the stimulus (or class of stimuli).
Coping Strategies
Prior to exposure, the therapist teaches the patient cognitive strategies to cope with anxiety. This is necessary because it provides the patient with a means of controlling their fear, rather than letting it build until it becomes unbearable. Relaxation training, such as meditation, is one type of coping strategy. Patients might be taught to focus on their breathing or to think about happy situations. Another means of relaxation is cognitive reappraisal of imagined outcomes. The therapist might encourage subjects to examine what they imagine happening when exposed to the phobic object, allowing them to recognize their catastrophic visions and contrast them with the actual outcome. For example, a patient with a snake phobia might realize that they imagine any snake they encounter would coil itself around their neck and strangling them, when this would not actually occur. Research at the University of Pennsylvania has demonstrated the effectiveness of this technique in helping subjects reduce similar animal phobias.
Progressive Exposure
The second component of systematic desensitization is gradual exposure to the feared object. Continuing with the snake example, the therapist would begin by asking their patient to develop a fear hierarchy, listing the relative unpleasantness of various types of exposure. For example, seeing a picture of a snake in a newspaper might be rated 5 of 100, while having several live snakes crawling on one’s neck would be the most fearful experience possible. Once the patient had practiced their relaxation technique, the therapist would then present them with the photograph, and help them calm down. They would then present increasingly unpleasant situations: a poster of a snake, a small snake in a box in the other room, a snake in a clear box in view, touching the snake, etc. At each step in the progression, the patient is desensitized to the phobia through the use of the coping technique. They realize that nothing bad happens to them, and the fear gradually extinguishes.
External links
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- "The Aversion Project: Human rights abuses of gays and lesbians in the SADF by health workers during the apartheid era"by Mikki van Zyl, Jeanelle de Gruchy, Sheila Lapinsky, Simon Lewin, and Graeme Reid, Simply Said and Done, Cape Town, October 1999.
- Ethical Treatment for All Youth
- Houser, Ward Aversion Therapy. Encyclopedia of Homosexuality. Dynes, Wayne R. (ed.), Garland Publishing, 1990. p. 101
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