ABSTRACT
Competent behavior therapists are now greatly in demand for hospital and research setting on both sides of the Atlantic yet there are few, if any, centers equipped to offer training in this speciality. Both J. Wolpe and H. J. Eysenck have forcefully pointed out that specialized training is required for the successful practice of behavior therapy. Ideally, behavior therapy should be taught in settings where other schools of therapy are also practiced. Those eligible for the advanced program will have had formal training in one of the mental health professions, typically clinical psychology or psychiatry. To the extent that such training is at present rarely oriented toward interpretations of maladaptive behavior in learning theory terms prospective behavior therapists frequently have to unlearn some earlier notions incompatible with the behavioral approach. The development of pharmacological principles consistent with learning theory is clearly the task of appropriately qualified behavior therapists with medical training.
