Good News and Bad News in Behavior Therapy

Abstract

Craighead, Craighead, Kazdin, and Mahoney's (1994) important text is considered as representative of strengths and weaknesses in behavior therapy. Stemming from various "behaviorisms," the field has great resources and impressive accomplishments. But it has the weaknesses of disunified science, weaknesses that distract from exploiting its own resources, namely the behaviorisms that provided the foundations for behavior therapy. And, following the character of contemporary psychology, the field has eclectically cloaked itself in the clothing of a cognitive psychology that does not seem to have a basic science that has been or is useful. Strengths and weaknesses are exemplified together with possible means of remedying the latter.