A Programing Contingency Analysis of Mental Health presents Dr. Israel
Goldiamond's reflections on various ways we formulate behavioral and
emotional problems, most often in traditional terms of mental health
disorders, mental diseases or illnesses, psychopathological disorders,
and so on - what he calls a pathological orientation. Here, Goldiamond
argues for a groundbreaking alternative view from the vantage point of
radical behaviorism.
The book begins by discussing contingency relations between behavior and
its past and present consequences, along with other environmental
events. It reminds us that this approach sits comfortably alongside
other consequential systems in the social and biological sciences,
particularly decision theory and evolution. This behaviorist system
regards most important human behaviors as being emitted rather than
stimulus-elicited. Described are some of the diverse origins of
behavior, including the effects of environmental consequences and the
programing procedures of social and cultural inheritance. The exposition
includes decision matrices which rationalize some of the programed
patterns and the accompanying thoughts and emotions commonly found in
mental illness. As a result of this nonlinear contingency analysis, such
patterns may be considered adaptive rather than maladaptive. The book
describes programs based on those matrices and outlines how they might
be applied to mitigate any problems or costs associated with those
patterns. The book concludes by moving from individual analysis to
social analysis, with particular reference to some societal
contingencies that may maintain the pathological orientation and others
that might shift our gaze in the direction proposed here.
Alongside Dr. Goldiamond's original work, this volume features a new
introduction from Dr. Paul Thomas Andronis and Dr. T. V. Joe Layng, as
well as an article tracing the history of the non-linear thinking of Dr.
Goldiamond, first published in The Behavior Analyst. It will be a
must-read for anyone working in the analysis of and clinical
intervention in problems associated with mental health, or those more
generally interested in the work of Israel Goldiamond.
