Behavior Therapy and Psychotherapy

Abstract

Weitzman’s article is notable because it represents an early effort on the part of a sophisticated psychologist to reconcile the therapeutic results of systematic desensitization not only with classical psychoanalytic theory; but also with Jungian theory, interpersonal theory; and cognitive decision theory. After effectively demolishing Eysenck’s tendency to talk of “learning theory” as though there were a single theory of learning, when in fact there are many—a point previously made by Estes et al. in 1954 and by Breger and McGaugh in 1965—Weitzman goes on to demonstrate how much more complex Wolpe’s technique of systematic desensitization actually is as compared with the rather simplistic explanation that is usually given (i.e., reduction of anxiety by reciprocal inhibition due to muscular relaxation). In actuality, “a wealth of dynamically rich” fantasy material that has been essentially ignored is conjured up by patients during the silent periods of “relaxation.” Weitzman appropriately insists that the existence of these central processes in behavior therapy must not be ignored, and should be incorporated into a comprehensive theory of the behavioral therapeutic process. He chides dynamic psychotherapists for ignoring this challenge and offers some ingenious explanations of how such a theory might be formulated within the framework of a number of diverse theories. He also presents some tentative examples of how systematic desensitization can be utilized within a framework of dynamic understanding in psychotherapy—techniques that subsequent authors have been able to carry further (see Section III of this volume).