Reciprocal inhibition or extinction?

Since reciprocal inhibition therapy techniques involve the procedure for classical extinction, it is reasonable to consider the possibility that it is extinction, rather than counterconditioning, that is responsible for their efficacy. Certain experiments increase the plausibility of this possibility by suggesting that a certain feature of the extinction procedure involved in the reciprocal inhibition techniques makes it more effective than free response avoidance extinction. This feature is the fact that the subject's escape from the anxiety stimuli is delayed by the therapist's instructions. Only one experiment clearly indicates any feature of any reciprocal inhibition technique which could not be attributed to extinction, this characteristic being a superiority of a reciprocal inhibition procedure to extinction in eliminating fear in rats. Thus for explaining reciprocal inhibition therapy, it is still essentially an open question as to whether the concept of reciprocal inhibition is better than extinction.