ABSTRACT
Behavioural therapy is that approach to the treatment of psychiatric disorders which 'denotes the use of experimentally established principles of learning for the purpose of changing unadaptive behaviour'. Although extensive contributions have been made by such psychiatrists as Wolpe and Marks, the field of behaviour therapy has been dominated largely by clinical psychologists. This is largely due to the fact that psychologists are generally better acquainted with the underlying theoretical principles and are therefore better able to apply them. Behavioural technologists have allied themselves closely to the formal diagnostic categories, and have endeavoured to devise techniques for each of these 'syndromes'. Psychoanalytic writers have always been critical of the 'symptomatic' nature of behaviour therapy and have stated quite' categorically that such a superficial approach must inevitably lead to 'symptom substitution'. Empirical research, however, has riot suggested that there is any greater risk of this happening with behaviour therapy than with other therapies.
