unconscious thoughts and feelings and are empathic in the sense of trying to convey an understanding of the individual's subjective

experience and Albert Ellis illuminating the person's particular Institute for Rational-Emotive dilemma" (p. 821). CBT is more Therapy preoccupied with unrecognized, unNew York, New York expressed, or unconscious thoughts In a well-formulated article, Messer and feelings than psychoanalysis often and Winokur (September 1980) dis- is, since it expressly shows clients how cuss some limits to the integration to look for the specific irrational and of psychoanalytic or psychodynamic antiempirical beliefs they tell themtherapy and behavior therapy. Al- selves to create their "emotional" though I generally agree with their problems and rarely rests till they find thesis, albeit for reasons quite differ- these beliefs (Bard, 1980; Ellis & Grieent from the ones they present, I feel ger, 1977; Kendall & Hollon, 1979; impelled to protest vigorously against Wessler & Wessler, 1980). As for psytheir misrepresentation of behavior choanalysts being empathic and trying therapy (BT) and cognitive behavior to convey an understanding of the intherapy (CBT). They start off by dividual's subjective experience and fairly clearly distinguishing "pure" illuminating the person's particular BT, such as Skinner's operant condi- dilemma, what cognitively oriented tioning, from CBT, but then spend therapist of any school is not in that most of the article lumping the two same camp today? together; and in the process they sadly 3. Even behavior therapists "enmisrepresent both BT and CBT, but gaged in cognitive restructuring (Ellis especially the latter. In fact, they & Grieger, 1977; Goldfried, 1979) mistakenly claim for psychoanalysis limit themselves to offering the client virtually all the advantages of CBT a somewhat restricted number of reland fail to see that their particular atively standard constructions (e.g., brand of psychodynamic therapy is fear of social disapproval, perfectionreally a form of CBTand a rather ism)" (p. 821). Certainly not Ellis! In inferior form at that! Let me cite some one of the chapters of the book Messer of their misrepresentations. and Winokur cite, we list no fewer 1. "Whereas the behavior therapist than 27 major irrational philosophies views sorrow as a negative affect to that clients of CBT frequently present be extinguished rapidly, the dynam- as important sources of their sympically oriented therapist sees sorrow toms. And other rational-emotive and as a natural concomitant of the per- cognitive behavior therapists include son's life history and current circum- many more "standard constructions," stances to be fully experienced, ac- which far outnumber the pitifully few cepted, and worked through in constructions (e.g., the Oedipus comconnection with the real and per- plex, penis envy, separation anxiety, ceived losses" (p. 820). As CBT ther- and fixation on the anal erotic level) apists have frequently gone to great that are frequently employed by psylengths to make clear, sorrow and choanalysts, 4. "The behavior therapist takes an mourning at the loss of a loved one are highly appropriate affects that are orientation that is relatively realistic, to be fully experienced, accepted, and objective, and extraspective, in conworked through, while depression and trast with the more idealistic, subjecdespair, which often consist of whin- tive, and introspective outlook of the ing about sorrowful events, are quite dynamic psychotherapist" (p. 822). different affects and had better The Skinnerian therapist no doubt be therapeutically minimized (Beck, does, But nonanalytic cognitive ther1976; Burns, 1980; Ellis, 1962, 1973; apists like Beck, Adler, Ellis, and LazLazarus, 1971). arus are exceptionally idealistic, sub2. "Psychoanalytic therapists, by jective, and introspective in outlook; contrast [to behavior therapists], tune and perhaps the most widely quoted in to unrecognized, unexpressed, or statement in the current CBT litera-

Misrepresentation of Behavior Therapy by Psychoanalysts

ture is the phenomenological view of the ancient philosopher Epictetus: "People are not disturbed by the things that happen to them but by the view that they take of these things." This is hardly an unidealistic and unintrospective outlook! 5. "The analytic therapist, operating in the romantic mode, holds an attitude of curiosity, adventure, and openness to new and unexpected developments in the client. We can find no counterpart to this drama in the behavioral domain, with its emphasis on the pragmatics of specified and realistic goals decided on at the beginning of therapy, brevity and economy of intervention, measurable outcomes, and strict adherence to scientific method" (p. 823). Messer and Winokur seem to forget that even a strict behavioral scientist like Skinner showed, in Walden Two, an unusual attitude of curiosity, adventure, and openness to new and unexpected developments in humans and that cognitive behavior therapists like Ellis, Lazarus, and Masters and Johnson have often been accused of being too curious, too adventurous, and too open. 6. "The ironic vision, similarly, is incongruent with the behavioral world view. This vision is characterized chiefly as a readiness to seek out internal contradictions, ambiguities, and paradoxes" (p. 823). Messer and Winokur (shall we say unconsciously?) fail to remember that paradoxical intention, one of the main CBT methods, was hardly pioneered by Freud or Jung but by several noted anti-analytic cognitive therapists, especially Knight Dunlap, Viktor Frankl, Jay Haley, and Allen Fay. 7. The behavior therapist's telling a female client "what to do and how to do it cannot help her work through and accept these grim realities. It is an essential part of dynamic therapy that the client recognize that the choice, with its attendant risks, is her own" (p. 823). BT and CBT do not tell clients what to do, though they often show them how to do what they would like to effectuate. Psychoanalytic therapy, as almost innumerable critics have shown, tends to be unusually authoritarian and determin-

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istic (Jurjevich, 1974), while rationalemotive therapy and other forms of CBT especially emphasize client choice and self-responsibility (Ellis, 1973). 8. "The absence of a developmental framework in the behavioral approach leads to a more optimistic view of possible outcome; early deficits and traumas are not usually seen as placing a ceiling on possible change" (p. 823). Almost all BT and CBT practitioners, following leaders in the field like Bandura, Ellis, Eysenck, and Wolpe, believe that serious emotional disturbances have a strong biological as well as socially learned component and that therefore complete personality change or removal of emotional disturbance is distinctly limited. If anything, psychoanalysts are more unrealistically optimistic in this respect than are behavior therapists. 9. "The analytic therapist aims not only to help clients feel better and function better but also to extend their perspectivetheir view of reality and to recognize and accept that even with improvement, life is inevitably a mixture of comic, ironic, romantic, and tragic elements" (p. 824). Perhaps Messer and Winokur aim to help their clients extend their perspective and their view of reality; but in this they then go beyond psychoanalysis, which helps give most clients an extremely limited, past-oriented view of themselves and of life. CBT, on the other hand, tends to be, along with existential therapy (which in a sense is one of its subheadings), much more philosophic and broader in scope and to deal with many aspects of human personality that psychoanalysis largely ignores. 10. The behavior therapist, in helping a client, "tries to invoke the power of positive thinking and engages in the direct action that follows from this viewpoint" (p. 824). One style of CBT, such as that espoused by Maultsby (1975) and Meichenbaum (1977), uses a good deal of what might well be called positive thinking; but the highly popular style of Beck (1976) and Ellis (1973, 1979) eschews and at times vigorously opposes positive thinking.

11. "Where the behavioral approach, consonant with the comic view, leads to action, the psychoanalytic approach, following the tragic view, leads to reflection and inquiry" (p. 824). Although calling CBT a tragic view of life would be an arrant overgeneralization, it particularly stresses reflection and inquiry and usually does so considerably more than does transference-schmansference-oriented psychoanalysis (Bard, 1980; Ellis, 1981; Grieger & Boyd, 1980; Walen, DiGiuseppe, & Wessler, 1980). 12. "By encouraging clients to act, or by offering coping techniques such as relaxation or self-assertion, might not the therapist curtail the process of putting clients in touch with deeper feelings and resources that would help them become more whole, integrated, and genuine?" (p. 826). Indeed it wouldif that were all a behavior therapist did! But unlike psychoanalysis, CBT does not emphasize one or a few selected techniques, but strongly espouses a wide-ranging, multimodal approachincluding philosophic and ethical discussions of clients' goals, purposes, ideals, and values (Lazarus, 1976). It is therefore much less likely to avoid putting clients in touch with their deeper feelings and resources than is anything resembling Freudian analysis. In these (and a good many other) ways, Messer and Winokur set up behavior therapy and cognitive behavior therapy "straw people" and then gleefully proceed to knock them down. Most of what they claim to be the typical "psychoanalytic" or "psychodynamic" goals and attitudes are today common to most nonanalytic therapies, including, for example, clientcentered, existential, humanistic, and Gestalt therapies. And virtually all the "limitations" or "disadvantages" of BT and CBT that they point to have nothing to do with these forms of therapy as they are usually practiced today. I quite agree with them that the outlook which is intrinsic to what I would call "real" psychoanalysis (and not the highly perfumed versiori they present in their article) is largely incompatible with most efficient forms

of therapy such as BT and GET. But to give my reasons for this would require a long article that would be much more critical of psychoanalysis than I have chosen to be in this short commentary on their article. REFERENCES Bard, J. A. Rational emotive therapy in practice. Champaign, 111.: Research Press,
1980.

Beck, A. T. Cognitive therapy and the emotional disorders. New York: International Universities Press, 1876. Burns, D. D. Feeling good: The new mood therapy. New York: Morrow, 1980. Ellis, A. Reason and emotion in psychotherapy. New York: Lyle Stuart/Citadel Press, 1962. Ellis, A. Humanistic psychotherapy: The rational-emotive approach. New York: Crown/McGraw-Hill Paperbacks, 1973. Ellis, A. Negative linking of RET to positive thinking. Contemporary Psychology, 1979, 24, 1058-1059. Ellis, A. Rational-emotive therapy and cognitive behavior therapy. New York: Springer, 1981. Ellis, A., & Grieger, R. (Eds.). Handbook of rational-emotive therapy. New York: Springer, 1977. Gold fried, M. R. Anxiety reduction through cognitive-behavioral intervention. In P. C. Kendall & S. D. Hollon (Eds.), Cognitive-behavioral intervention: Theory, research and procedures. New York: Academic Press, 1979. Grieger, R., & Doyd, J. Rational-emotive therapy: A skills based approach. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1980. Jurjevich, R. M. The hoax of Freudism. Philadelphia; Dorrance, 1974. Kendall, P. C, & Hollon, S. D. (Eds.). Cognitive-behavioral -intervention: Theory, research and procedures. New York: Academic Press, 1979. Lazarus, A. A. Behavior therapy and beyond. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971. Lazarus, A. A. Multimodal therapy. New York: Springer, 1976. Maultsby, M. C., Jr. Help yourself to happiness. New York: Institute for Rational Living, 1975. Meichenbaum, D. Cognitive behavior modification. New York: Plenum Press,
1977.

Messer, S. B., & Winokur, M. Some limits to the integration of psychoanalytic and behavior therapy. American Psychologist, 1980, 35, 818-827. Walen, S. R., DiGiuseppe, R., & Wessler, R. L. A practitioner's guide to rationalemotive therapy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1980. Wessler, R. A., & Wessler, R. L. Rationalemotive therapy: A cognitive behavioral approach. San Francisco: JosseyBass, 1980.

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