ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at some contributions of learning theory which have relevance to psychoanalytic therapy, and discusses more thoroughly some of the inherent problems. The eclectic learning theorist recognizes that both types of learning take place in life. With regard to personality development in general, early psychoanalytic theory tended to emphasize “libidinal” pleasure-strivings and defenses against anxiety as the primary shaping forces. The fundamental problem with which we are faced in psychoanalytic therapy is that of how we can enable or cause the patient to give up certain acquired patterns of thought, feeling, or behavior in favor of others which are considered more “mature,” “adaptive,” “productive“ or “self-realizing.” Psychoanalytic theories have generally favored the latter conception as the essential model for what happens in therapy.
