ABSTRACT
Despite voluminous experimental work in the area of learning, only within the last few years have principles derived from the laboratory begun to find their practical and ultimate application to therapy (Dollard and Miller, 1950; Wolpe, 1954; Wolpe, 1964; Eysenck, 1964). Behavior therapy can be defined as a systematic manipulation of the patient’s behavior, according to learning principles, to help the patient exert appropriate and socially condoned control over his overt behavior. Disturbed demeanor is assumed to be the outcome of persistent and ineffective emotional habits which are primarily manifested by anxiety. The establishment of these maladaptive habits follows a developmental sequence of faulty learning in the course of everyday human interactions and experiences. To assume that neurotic patterns are learned implies that they may also be unlearned.
