ABSTRACT
The very composition of the present group of symposiasts illustrates that behavior therapy is not a single homogeneous doctrine. The behavior therapist must look at the specific situation and work with an individual, not a disease label. The first thing a behavior therapy trainee must learn, then, is a new view of people. This means that the target behavior is a normal, appropriate, reasonable outcome of past and continuing experience. The wide range of people who are involved in behavior therapy has two implications. The first is that the psychologist's role as consultant shifts drastically from a focus on a particular case to the teaching of principles and programming of the environment. The second implication is that no invariant set of concepts is used. Techniques seem easy to apply and those who have little experience with behavior therapy think that one simply tells people what to do or simply gives shocks at one time and candy at another.
