The classical conditioning of sleep and wakefulness

Using a metronome beat as conditioned stimulus three cases are described in which this stimulus was presented in close temporal contiguity with experimentally-induced sleep or waking. Drugs or fatigue consequent upon sleep deprivation were used as unconditioned stimuli for sleep. One of the subjects was an anxiety neurotic, one had narcolepsy and the third was a student volunteer. No EEG indication of conditioned sleep was obtained but there was evidence of conditioned relaxation in the anxiety neurotic and conditioned arousal in the other two cases.     

Rational emotive behaviour therapy in the treatment of stress

Rational emotive behaviour therapists view stress-related disorders as originating in irrational beliefs (iB's), philosophies and attitudes, as opposed to the stressor. People who suffer from stress differ from people who suffer from emotional or neurotic problems mainly in that the stressed people have iB's about specific, short-term or more readily identifiable events, as opposed to the more mundane and diffuse difficulties suffered by the neurotic individual. Both the conscious and unconscious antecedents to stress difficulties and how they relate to distorted thinking and psychophysiological disorders are discussed from an information-processing perspective. Rational emotive behaviour treatments for stress-related disorders are detailed and explained.     

Pain-provoking behaviour as a driven reaction to psychological distress: the bio-psycho-social neurotic loop model

In clinical psychology and psychiatry, different complaints are generally perceived as problems with a different ethiology, despite the fact that it can also be hypothesised that they share the same dimension. We believe that many clinicians share the heuristic insight that a pure categorical approach to psychopathology underscores the potential value of a dimensional approach. The neurotic loop model attempts to explain how pain-provoking behaviour develops and how it persists, increases and expands in spite of continuing negative consequences. Pain-producing behaviour is postulated as a neurobiologically rooted reaction to the activation of distressing representations. In biologically vulnerable people, pain-provoking behaviour channels stress resulting from disturbing emotions. This behaviour will initially be very rudimentary and may become more sophisticated according to the operant history. In this way, the neurotic loop model postulates pain-provoking behaviour on a continuum from simple muscle contractions to more complex self-injurious behaviour. Negative consequences of pain-provoking behaviour will reactivate the distressing representations, resulting in a driven vicious circle: the neurotic loop. The model integrates the most influential models of learning theory with neurobiology and developmental aspects. The neurotic loop model attempts to provide insight into the dynamics of dysfunctional pain-provoking behaviour and yields implications for therapy.     

The experimental model and treatment of neurotic depression

Learned helplessness is at present widely accepted as a model for depression. Depression, however, is a symptom-complex that has many causes. Three general causal categories are distinguished—normal, neurotic and endogenous. Neurotic depressions comprise the main clinical category whose causation is primarily external.

This paper shows that neurotic depression is evidently a function of conditioned anxiety response habits that finds a paradigm in experimental neuroses, not in learned helplessness. Both experimental and clinical neurotic depressions are overcome by deconditioning anxiety.

In a sample of 25 cases treated by the deconditioning of anxiety, 22 recovered from their depressions; and the recoveries were found to have endured in the 19 of them who were followed up for at least 6 months.     

The problem of apparent schizophrenic symptoms in juveniles]

In the clinic we frequently come across cases of indistinct accentuated schizophrenic behaviour in youth. We mention here a casuistry which can be considered as a juvenile asthenic denial syndrome with coenaesthetic symptoms. This picture can be differentiated from coenaesthetic schizophrenia, hebephrenia, neurotic symptoms and physical psychoses which can be proven. The problem of differential diagnosis is considered with particular regard to progressive diagnosis.     

The relevance of generalization techniques to the treatment of stammering and phobic symptoms

This paper is presented as a further illustration of the important role which generalization techniques may play in the treatment of certain neurotic disorders. It also aims to provide a timely reminder that in one's concern with symptomatic treatment the historically earlier conditioned autonomic drive-casually related to these symptoms, may, in certain instances, be ignored. Treatment of the surplus motor, conditioned responses alone might thus result in only partial improvements and a failure either to make a positive or a lasting response to treatment.     

Incidence and significance of anamnestically indicated neurotic disorders in young applicants for flight training

The histories of 17 years old clinically normal subjects show that 10% of them had functional disturbances or abnormalities in behaviour which are not to be considered as indications of latent neurotic development. Significant differences in EEG, size distribution, and reaction of the circulatory system during psycho-emotional stress (low-pressure chamber testing) may indicate a disharmonious physical maturation with increased disposition to circulatory lability and psychological abnormalities. The good intellectual performances and the favourable prognosis with regard to flight training are reasons for not disqualifying this group of applicants.     

Startbox-goalbox confinement durations as determinants of self-punitive behavior

Two levels of confinement duration (5 or 60 sec) in either startbox or goalbox were factorially combined with presence or absence of shock during extinction of a runway escape response in a self-punitive paradigm under a spaced-trials procedure. All groups were equated for amount and temporal spacing of handling before and after each trial. Shocked rats were more resistant to extinction than nonshocked rats only when startbox confinement was short. When startbox confinement was long, shock facilitated extinction. Long goalbox confinement enhanced running speed for shocked rats, but only in the presence of shock. It was suggested that duration of startbox confinement affects strength of conditioned fear, with long confinement leading to its extinction.     

Behaviour therapy with identical twins

Among the patients treated by the writer during the past five years were two pairs of identical twins. Each respective pair of twins suffered from similar neurotic disabilities. While the patients undergoing behaviour therapy either recovered completely or improved substantially, their untreated twin siblings retained their maladaptive habits until they too underwent a course of behaviour therapy. A fifth patient, also one of an identical twin, derived benefit from therapy while his twin brother, opposed to therapeutic intervention on religious grounds, has remained neurotically incapacitated. These eases are followed by comments drawing didactic inferences. Emphasis is placed on the fact that behaviour therapy does not ignore the complex causality of neurotic disturbances. Interpersonal considerations at both causal and remedial levels are discussed.     

Taste avoidance caused by spontaneous wheel running: effects of duration and delay of wheel confinement

Confinement of a rat in a running wheel results in the rat's subsequent avoidance of the taste consumed before the confinement. This phenomenon has been ascribed to taste aversion conditioned by spontaneous wheel running. As a first step toward clarification of the underlying mechanism of this phenomenon, we manipulated two parameters of the taste-confinement procedure: duration of wheel confinement (Experiments 1A and 1B) and temporal intervals between the taste consumption and the wheel confinement (Experiments 2A and 2B). In general, longer confinement and shorter inter-event interval caused stronger taste avoidance. However, the results also suggested that it is possible to establish taste avoidance when wheel confinement was delayed 1-h after the taste consumption. These results correspond to those of conventional taste aversion caused by illness-inducing agents, suggesting similar mechanisms in the both preparations. Experiment 3 revealed that running in a wheel rather than wheel confinement itself is the effective factor for establishing taste avoidance.     

A pavlovian approach to psychiatry

The basic scientific discovery made by Pavlov, namely the differentially associated paired system comprising related positive and negative conditioned signals based upon inborn reflex systems, has been applied to normal, neurotic and psychotic states. A hypothesis is suggested as to the causation of neurotic and psychotic disorder. The differentially associated paired systems based upon the reproductive reflexes have to be reversed at puberty in the course of maturation and this disrupts normal function. This is not incompatible with Freudian ideas where “unconscious incestuous wishes, drives and guilt” are believed to be potent factors in the production of functional disorders. Freudian “life instincts” are equated with normal differentially associated paired systems and “death instincts” are equated with those paired systems in a state of reversal (ultraparadoxical phase).     

Relationship between the unconscious and motivation in establishing a therapeutic program

The need for complex psychotherapy is reified by using the combination of group psychotherapy with methods of individual and behavioral therapy as an example. The fact that certain forms of maldevelopment cannot be satisfactorily checked by dynamic group psychotherapy alone is considered to be due not only to the conditioning of, and automatism associated with, neurotic malbehavior. It is especially in the case of inordinate dread and fear of disease, which is generally referred to as nosophobia, that the patient's great difficulty in accepting the possibility of a mental origin or causation of his ailment stands in the way of making effective use of such a therapy. The authors are of the opinion that acceptance by the patient of a mental origin or causation is made difficult especially by the fact that in the case of neurotic maldevelopments the kind and degree of neurotic conflictiveness are lore or less unconscious. This fact, which has not so far received much attention, should be taken into consideration in future research into the unconscious.     

Acquisition of instrumental conditioned reinforcement is resistant to the devaluation of the unconditioned stimulus

The associative mechanisms responsible for the efficacy of Pavlovian stimuli during first- and second-order conditioning have been extensively studied, but little is known about the representations underlying instrumental conditioned reinforcement. The present study investigated the associative structure underlying conditioned reinforcement, by employing an unconditioned stimulus (US) devaluation procedure on a commonly used instrumental task: the acquisition of a new response with conditioned reinforcement. Whilst US-directed behaviour was abolished following devaluation, the conditioned stimulus acting as a conditioned reinforcer supported the acquisition of instrumental responding. In this preparation then, the conditioned reinforcer appears to be impervious to devaluation of its associated US, suggesting that the underlying representation maintaining behaviour is independent of the current value of the US and may reflect the activation of a central appetitive motivational state.     

Socio-sexual behaviours in rats after neonatal and adult β-endorphin treatment

This study is concerned with the influence of neuropeptides, in particular β-endorphin (β-END), on behaviour. Neuropeptides participate in the chemical transmission of the central nervous communication processes. The effects of β-END on socio-sexual behaviours were examined in laboratory rats. The methodological approach was based on a multivariate analysis. β-END was found to change the socio-sexual behaviour profile in a way indicating that the subject may have difficulties in interpreting incoming information. The effects of neonatal administration of β-END on the adult performance of sexual behaviour are also described. Early exposure to β-END altered the response to β-END in the adult individual. A working hypothesis is proposed that the behaviour in the adult may to a certain extent be conditioned during sensitive periods of pre-adult development by environmental stimuli releasing endogenous neurohormones.     

Morita therapy and behaviour therapy

The work of Morita is briefly described against the background of the development of psychology and psychiatry in Japan. It is shown that Morita had a theory of personality remarkably like that which Eysenck was later to develop, although more limited in scope. The therapy which Morita devised for neurotic disorders of a dysthymic kind is described and compared with similar forms of behaviour therapy which are now used in the West. Morita therapy is shown not to be dependent on Zen philosophy, as is sometimes supposed, and its radical difference from psychoanalytic therapy is demonstrated. It is suggested that behaviour therapists and Morita therapists have much to gain by cooperation.     

Conditioned nausea after cancer chemotherapy and autonomic nervous system conditionability

There are marked individual differences in conditioned nausea after cancer chemotherapy. To examine if part of this variation is associated with individual differences in autonomic nervous system conditionability, the present study addressed whether patients with conditioned nausea acquired conditioned heart rate and electrodermal responses at a different rate than patients without conditioned nausea. Of 28 relapse-free patients who had completed cisplatinum treatment for testicular cancer between 1981 and 1986, 10 reported persistent conditioned nausea, 8 extinguished conditioned nausea and 10 no conditioned nausea. These three groups were subjected to a differential conditioning paradigm with 8 sec pictorial stimuli (circles and triangles) serving as conditioned stimuli for an unconditioned electric shock while heart rate and electrodermal activity was monitored. There were 4 habituation, 8 acquisition and 8 extinction trials with each of the two cues. Analyses of variance using nausea status as the independent variable and physiological responses as the dependent lended some support to the notion that conditioned heart rate deceleration developed in response to the reinforced compared to the nonreinforced cue during acquisition in the two groups with persistent or extinguished conditioned nausea but not in the group with no conditioned nausea. In addition, patients that displayed good, as compared to poor heart rate conditionability during acquisition, were more likely to have persistent conditioned nausea, whereas those who showed poor heart rate conditioning mostly were those without conditioned nausea. Electrodermal variables revealed no systematic differences between groups. This tentatively supports that individual differences in parasympathetic but not sympathetic nervous system conditionability may be associated with individual differences in conditioned nausea resulting from cancer chemotherapy.     

A factor analysis of certain neurotic symptoms

In an attempt to investigate the concept of neurotic tendency thirty-nine of the forty-two most discriminative items in the Thurstone Neurotic Inventory were administered as a questionnaire to a group of five hundred male college students. An analysis of the table of intercorrelations by Thurstone's centroid method showed that eight factors were sufficient to account for the observed intercorrelations with negligible residuals. The eight centroid factors were then transformed into a simple structure. It is concluded that a single trait of neurotic tendency cannot be postulated and tentative hypotheses are formed as to the nature of the primary traits revealed by the analysis.Readministering the same test to the same students a week later showed a high consistency of response both on the test as a whole, and on the individual items.     

“A definite feel‐it moment”: Embodiment,externalisation and emotion during chair‐work in compassion‐focused therapy

Chair‐work is an experiential method used within compassion‐focused therapy (CFT) to apply compassion to various aspects of the self. This is the first study of CFT chair‐work and is focused on clients' lived experiences of a chair‐work intervention for self‐criticism. Twelve participants with depression were interviewed following the chair‐work intervention and the resulting data were examined using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Three superordinate themes were identified: “embodiment and enactment,” “externalising the self in physical form” and “emotional intensity.” The findings suggest the importance of accessing and expressing various emotions connected with self‐criticism, whilst highlighting the potential for client distress and avoidance during the intervention. The role of embodying, enacting and physically situating aspects of the self in different chairs is also suggested to be an important mechanism of change in CFT chair‐work. The findings are discussed in terms of clinical implications, emphasising how core CFT concepts and practices are facilitated by the chair‐work process.     

Psychoanalytic action explanation

Psychoanalysis is concerned with neurotic behaviour that counts as an action if one takes into account “repressed” mental states. Freud's paradigmatic examples are a challenge for philosophical theories of action explanation. The main problem is that such symptomatic behaviour is, in a characteristic way, irrational. In line with standard interpretations, I will recap that psychoanalytic action explanation is not in accordance with Davidson's classical reason-explanation model, and I will recall that Freud's unconsciousness is not a second mind with its own rationality but that it is non-propositional in character. However, I then will argue that this characterization is not discriminating enough to explain the dynamical unconscious and overlooks the crucial role of “counter-cathexis”. With counter-cathexis the relevant desire turns out to be a complex with two inseparable aspects (“double-aspect view”), so that the causing belief–desire pair is still part of the space of reasons, although it cannot rationalize the behaviour. Psychoanalytic action explanation is hence still Davidsonian, albeit in a modified way.     

Shaping of three-man teams on a multiple DRL-DRH schedule using collective reinforcement

Five three-man teams were conditioned to a multiple DRL-DRH schedule during five daily sessions of 3 hr each. The teams were conditioned on the basis of their cumulative response rate regardless of the contributions of individual members. Two individually conditioned Ss were run under a similar schedule for comparison. Although all teams demonstrated some differentiation of response rate under the two legs of the schedule, this difference was not achieved as rapidly, nor was it as stable, as the differentiation in rates achieved in individually conditioned Ss. Team members displayed a variety of response rates as a result of collective team conditioning. Often, individual response rates interfered with obtainment of team reinforcement. The individual team members displayed little S^D control in comparison with the individually conditioned Ss. In general the results suggest that collective reinforcement is highly inefficient in comparison with procedures employing individual feedback.