TOWARD A CONSTRUCTIONAL APPROACH TO SOCIAL PROBLEMS: ETHICAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUES RAISED BY APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS

3 For example, the New York Times reports the formation of an American Bar Association Commission on the Mentally Disabled, whose chairman states that "We find a vast desert in which the rights and very lives of the mentally disturbed are affected without legal counsel." The same article (December 9, 1973) reports the ruling by a federal court that a patient cannot be committed "unless he is informed that conversations with a state psychiatrist could be used against himself." And an attorney for the New York Civil Liberties union states that "the mentally ill are entitled to the same constitutional rights and protections as criminals and other citizens."

And in case there are any questions about the procedures which criminals (and patients by analogy) are to be protected from, and about the effectiveness of the protests discussed, on February 14, 1974, the government banned the use of federal anticrime money for behavior modification projects for prison inmates, juvenile offenders, and alcoholics. Such projects funded by the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, which were immediately terminated thereby included programs "based on Dr. B.F. Skinner's reinforcement principles." Not affected (as yet) by the L.E.A.A. ban are Bureau of Prisons projects which involve "principles of behavior modification," and NIMH grants funding programs for juveniles (The New York Times, February 15, 1974), and, of course, behavior modification programs with other populations.

4 It was a character by Moliére (1670) who had the insight one day that he had been speaking prose practically all his life. Analogously, I suspect that many laymen, reading one of the ever-increasing popularizations of behavior modification, or hearing the pep-talk at conventions or workshops, decide that they have been applying behavior modification all their lives. While some find benefit from such insight, for others the new terminology may simply sanction the application of aversive control which has characterized much of their control repertoire up to now.

The terminology has entered the soap operas. In Love of Life, one of the classics, Meg warns her daughter against falling prey to Meg's sister, Vanessa, whom she describes as follows: "She's a compulsive reinforcer, and you're the one she's elected to reinforce." Characteristically, these comments were made in the context of an explicit discussion of control and controlling tendencies, and Meg is evidently untrained in the use of the terminology. The typical soap opera contains at least one character whose views are consistently sensible, and the reader may take solace in the fact that Vanessa, the sister characterized as the compulsive reinforcer, is that sensible person. However, Meg, who is somewhat of a transparent schemer, is the one using the operant jargon (C.B.S. Television Network, January 21, 1974, 11:30-11:55 a.m. EDT).

5 There are many uncomfortable parallels between the social use of psychoanalysis and what seems to be occurring in behavior analysis. One of the problems faced by professionally trained psychoanalysts has been the attribution to psychoanalytic practice and theory of quotations from self-proclaimed psychoanalysts. On the Chicago scene, one agency advertises itself as offering "a proven, scientifically researched program for couples and individuals," as well as training "professionals in behavior modification, Gestalt and transactional analysis, primal scream, group psychotherapy."