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A review by morgan_blackledge
The ABCs of Human Behavior: Behavioral Principles for the Practicing Clinician by Niklas Törneke, Jonas Ramnerö
5.0
It's so not magical that it's magical. That's how I feel about Radical (Functional Contextual) Behaviorism.
It's so NOT magical that it's magical.
As a young man, I used to search for magical explanations to ordinary events e.g. I crashed the car because it was my "karma", it was "meant to be", that sort of nonsense. Now that I'm "middle aged" I search for ordinary explanations for "magical" or extraordinary events.
For example; my wife called just as I was thinking about her (wonderful to be sure), not due to psychic connection, but rather born of coincidence i.e. I think of her often and she calls me often. My brain is "hardwired" for pattern recognition and my cognitive facility is biased to attribute significance to events that confirm certain intuitions and filter out stimuli that counters said intuitions. To me, that's so much more powerful than "she caught my vibes".
I know it sounds like a drag. But to me the ordinary, simple and plausible explanations are my new magical. Mostly because they have actual explanatory (and even predictive) power, and to my current "get er done" way of thinking, that's more magical than what typically passes for magic.
Radical (Functional Contextual) Behaviorism is the pinnacle (tantric yoga) of this "get er done" approach explaining and predicting, and dare I say it -manipulating- human behavior (not necessarily a bad thing in the context of psychotherapy provided its transparent and non-coercive).
After working with people with really serious behavioral health issues e.g. substance dependence, obsessive compulsive disorder, panic disorder, specific phobia etc. I'm willing to go with what works. And Behavioral Therapy really works for a lot of really difficult to treat stuff. Particularly when delivered with empathy, connection and genuine unconditional positive regard.
The book is kind of unusual in the sense that it explicitly covers behavioral therapy techniques in a comprehensive, step by step way. I say it's unusual, because behavioral therapy (even the functional contextual variety) is typically discussed from within a manual of another broader modality e.g. cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), or more recently dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) and acceptance commitment therapy (ACT).
If you want texts on behavioral therapy, you usually get small chapters in textbooks, texts on applied behavioral analysis (ABA), or technical explanations of experimental behaviorism (which is awesome, but not so useful for clinical application).
Frequently the subject of clinical application is handled in a perfunctory way, lacking sufficient detail, or its tailored to a specific population (as in the case of ABA and to a lesser degree DBT texts).
So here is a straight up manual for functional contextual behaviorism, straight no chaiser! and I have to say, I dig it.
I use ACT all the time in my clinical work, but I have to say, much of the clarity of the functional contextual behavioral (FCB) framework that ACT is built on is obscured by the other wonderful ACT stuff e.g. the metaphors and nifty geometric diagrams etc. (practicing ACT is about as close to being a free mason as ill ever get, so I appreciate what little arcana I'm afforded as a behaviorally oriented therapist i.e. not much).
Reading this book is stoking me on grounding my practice in good ol' functional contextual behavioral (e.g. contemporary radical behavioral) therapy techniques.
A good friend hipped me to the fact that if you just formulate the question clearly enough, the answer usually becomes clear. And that is what this book is all about. Collecting excellent, detailed, clear information on observable behavior.
I can recall personal therapy experiences where my therapist would make me explain myself to her "like she was a dummy". By the end of the exercise it would be utterly clear what the matter was. After that the action plan was obvious. That's the kind of therapist I want to be. Focused on listening and clarification (i.e. collecting good data). That is a profound intervention.
It's so not magical that it's magical.
OH MY GOD I ALMOST! FORGOT TO MENTION MY FAVE (x 1,000,000) PART OF THE BOOK!
It's grounded in evolutionary theory. The angels doth sing Hallelujah! Que the heavenly sound of an Apple computer rebooting ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! Yes.
I always got the sneaking suspicion that Steven C. Heays kept ACT "evo-free" as a strategic choice in order to not be saddled with the often divisive conversation that seems to inevitably haunt the intersections of spirituality and science.
But behaviorism is hand and glove with evolutionary theory. And frankly speaking, once you introduce affect into the mix, you simply can't avoid the topic.
I use evo-psych and bio-psych (synonyms in my opinion) references all the time in my ACT practice. I wouldn't know how to do ACT without them. It's great to have a text on Functional Contextual Behaviorism integrate these streams. yum!
It's so NOT magical that it's magical.
As a young man, I used to search for magical explanations to ordinary events e.g. I crashed the car because it was my "karma", it was "meant to be", that sort of nonsense. Now that I'm "middle aged" I search for ordinary explanations for "magical" or extraordinary events.
For example; my wife called just as I was thinking about her (wonderful to be sure), not due to psychic connection, but rather born of coincidence i.e. I think of her often and she calls me often. My brain is "hardwired" for pattern recognition and my cognitive facility is biased to attribute significance to events that confirm certain intuitions and filter out stimuli that counters said intuitions. To me, that's so much more powerful than "she caught my vibes".
I know it sounds like a drag. But to me the ordinary, simple and plausible explanations are my new magical. Mostly because they have actual explanatory (and even predictive) power, and to my current "get er done" way of thinking, that's more magical than what typically passes for magic.
Radical (Functional Contextual) Behaviorism is the pinnacle (tantric yoga) of this "get er done" approach explaining and predicting, and dare I say it -manipulating- human behavior (not necessarily a bad thing in the context of psychotherapy provided its transparent and non-coercive).
After working with people with really serious behavioral health issues e.g. substance dependence, obsessive compulsive disorder, panic disorder, specific phobia etc. I'm willing to go with what works. And Behavioral Therapy really works for a lot of really difficult to treat stuff. Particularly when delivered with empathy, connection and genuine unconditional positive regard.
The book is kind of unusual in the sense that it explicitly covers behavioral therapy techniques in a comprehensive, step by step way. I say it's unusual, because behavioral therapy (even the functional contextual variety) is typically discussed from within a manual of another broader modality e.g. cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), or more recently dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) and acceptance commitment therapy (ACT).
If you want texts on behavioral therapy, you usually get small chapters in textbooks, texts on applied behavioral analysis (ABA), or technical explanations of experimental behaviorism (which is awesome, but not so useful for clinical application).
Frequently the subject of clinical application is handled in a perfunctory way, lacking sufficient detail, or its tailored to a specific population (as in the case of ABA and to a lesser degree DBT texts).
So here is a straight up manual for functional contextual behaviorism, straight no chaiser! and I have to say, I dig it.
I use ACT all the time in my clinical work, but I have to say, much of the clarity of the functional contextual behavioral (FCB) framework that ACT is built on is obscured by the other wonderful ACT stuff e.g. the metaphors and nifty geometric diagrams etc. (practicing ACT is about as close to being a free mason as ill ever get, so I appreciate what little arcana I'm afforded as a behaviorally oriented therapist i.e. not much).
Reading this book is stoking me on grounding my practice in good ol' functional contextual behavioral (e.g. contemporary radical behavioral) therapy techniques.
A good friend hipped me to the fact that if you just formulate the question clearly enough, the answer usually becomes clear. And that is what this book is all about. Collecting excellent, detailed, clear information on observable behavior.
I can recall personal therapy experiences where my therapist would make me explain myself to her "like she was a dummy". By the end of the exercise it would be utterly clear what the matter was. After that the action plan was obvious. That's the kind of therapist I want to be. Focused on listening and clarification (i.e. collecting good data). That is a profound intervention.
It's so not magical that it's magical.
OH MY GOD I ALMOST! FORGOT TO MENTION MY FAVE (x 1,000,000) PART OF THE BOOK!
It's grounded in evolutionary theory. The angels doth sing Hallelujah! Que the heavenly sound of an Apple computer rebooting ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! Yes.
I always got the sneaking suspicion that Steven C. Heays kept ACT "evo-free" as a strategic choice in order to not be saddled with the often divisive conversation that seems to inevitably haunt the intersections of spirituality and science.
But behaviorism is hand and glove with evolutionary theory. And frankly speaking, once you introduce affect into the mix, you simply can't avoid the topic.
I use evo-psych and bio-psych (synonyms in my opinion) references all the time in my ACT practice. I wouldn't know how to do ACT without them. It's great to have a text on Functional Contextual Behaviorism integrate these streams. yum!