ABSTRACT
This chapter concentrates on the coercive perpetuation of the myth and concludes by briefly addressing its sophisticated promulgation. The application of the principles of behavior analysis to populations with developmental disabilities, which began in the early 1960s, created the conditions and outcomes that led to the right to education laws, right to treatment laws, and deinstitutionalization. The Association for Behavior Analysis (ABA) is the world's leading behavior analytical organization. In 1988, ABA published a task force report on the right to effective behavioral treatment. Donnellan and LaVigna described the task force report as "not so different from Malleus maleficarum, outlining for the inquisition the procedural safeguards to assure that each accused heretic had an opportunity to respond to less intrusive means". There has been a sophisticated promulgation and utilization of the myth and its fundamental role within the nonaversive movement by "men of action" via model building and the ubiquitous marketing of functional assessment.
