Originally published in 1976 and on the basis of extended case histories, Eysenck showed how experts dealt with problems which arose in the course of behaviour therapy. It showed how they formulated hypotheses about causation and treatment, and used these to structure the methods employed; and how they changed their hypotheses when treatment showed them to have been mistaken. The prime aim was to demonstrate the complexities involved in even apparently simple cases, and the need to base treatment on a proper understanding of the dynamics of the case. All the articles were specially written for this book, the purpose being to underline the need to state the dynamics of a case in such a form that they could be used as hypotheses leading to specific treatment recommendations. The hypotheses were tested by the success or failure of the treatment, thus making the treatment of individual patients a proper experimental procedure. Behaviour therapy emphasises the fundamental importance of the outcome problem and only experience can teach the behaviour therapist just how this interplay of theory formulation and design of location, evaluation of effect and changes in theory, works in actual practice. The book will help those engaged in this type of therapy to understand the process better, and to gain a quicker mastery of the technique.

Originally published in 1987, the purpose of this book was to show how therapists grappled with cases which challenged their ideas about the theory and practice of psychotherapy at the time, and how they revised these ideas as a result of encountering these cases. The contributors, leading therapists from Britain and the United States, discuss a range of issues – personal, conceptual and technical – that will be of interest to all those engaged in psychotherapeutic work. As such, the book is aimed at those working in psychotherapy counselling, clinical psychology and psychiatry, and at students of these disciplines. It will also have relevance for those with a scholarly interest in developments in the theory and practice of psychotherapy.

Originally published in 1965 this book was an introduction to post-Freudian methods of diagnosing and treating neurotics of the time. These methods were known collectively as ‘behaviour therapy’, a term indicating their derivation from modern behaviourism, learning theory, and conditioning principles. In the early twentieth century John B. Watson pointed out that ‘psychology, as the behaviourist views it, is a purely objective experimental branch of natural science. Its theoretical goal is the prediction and control of behaviour.’ Behaviour therapy attempts to extend this control to the field of neurotic disorders, and in doing so it makes use of experimental laboratory findings, and of theories based on these. It was seen as the very opposite of the position taken by psychoanalysis. The authors believed that, by the late twentieth century, behaviour therapy would be ‘firmly established as one of the most important, if not the most important, weapon in the hands of psychiatrists and clinical psychologists’.

With the emphasis in the 1980s on effectiveness and efficiency in health services, evaluation of practice was increasingly important. This was particularly true of mental health, where many practices were poorly evaluated and therefore might have been of questionable validity. Originally published in 1987, this book reviews the state of evaluative research of mental health programmes at the time, showing how practices can be evaluated and hence improved. A multidisciplinary group of authors, covering psychiatry, clinical psychology, psychiatric nursing, social work and other ‘therapies’, describe previous studies and applications in each discipline, before detailing a case study of their own evaluative work. The book will still have something to offer all professionals concerned with improving the quality of their work in the mental health area.

Originally published in 1986, one of the major developments in behavioural psychotherapy and mental health in the previous decade had been the growing involvement of non-psychologists in behaviour therapy. This was a result of the fact that there were too few psychologists to cope with problem behaviour and that other professionals or carers began to appreciate more clearly their potential as agents of behaviour change. Foremost among these ‘mediators’ of therapy were parents, nurses (particularly psychiatric nurses) and teachers (especially remedial teachers). Their involvement had greatly increased the efficiency of behaviour therapy at the time and opened up a new era in applied psychology. It also entailed the development of new training formats, evaluation procedures and implementation strategies. The main aim of this book was to provide a summary of the research relevant to these issues, and to offer practical guidelines to those who were interested in training or being trained as behaviour therapists. For this reason there are chapters by researchers who have been involved in training parents, nurses and teachers. These chapters provide a detailed account of training in a form that was rarely available in published form at the time, and even today should be of great assistance to readers.

Originally published in 1973, this book contains the 1971 William James Lectures at Harvard, the first by that name to be given by a British psychologist. In addition, there are reprints of four shorter lectures which had not been easily available before. Together the resulting collection gave a broad picture of a number of advances in human psychology in the previous ten years. Memory, attention, language, and the processes of decision are discussed, and typical recent ideas and experiments described. Each topic is presented, however, with continual reference to the reasons why the research was done, its implications for philosophy and for scientific method, and its connection with an attitude to politics and life as a whole. The author not only describes little known facts about the way people take decisions or remember, but also argues that we are living through a change in our attitudes to human nature: and that proper concern for human values, or understanding of people with minds different from our own, must demand a more scientific and less intuitive analysis of man. Experiments on human beings still strike many of us as cold-blooded and inhuman; this book tries to explain why some scientists devote themselves to this approach. It makes the connection between measurements of reaction time or of ability to see a written word in a brief flash, and our political and personal beliefs. Donald E. Broadbent is well recognised as a major influence on cognitive psychology today. This reissue is an opportunity to see his exceptional writing in print again and should be read with equal interest by psychologists as well as laymen who would like to know about some of the more practical aspects of psychological enquiry of the time.

Originally published in 1981, this title was designed to present a comprehensive review of research on, and treatment of selective mutism. It represents the only systematic overview of research and treatment procedures on this behavioral problem at the time. In many respects the literature on selective mutism clearly presents the differences in assessment and treatment between the intrapsychic (or psychodynamic) and behavioral approaches to deviant behaviour. The title presents an overview of the two major therapeutic approaches of human behaviour within the context of treating selective mutism.