Andrew Salter
Encyclopedia
Andrew Salter was the founder of Conditioned Reflex Therapy, an early form of behaviour therapy
which emphasized assertive and expressive behaviour as the way to combat the inhibitory personality traits which Salter believed were the underlying cause of most neuroses. In the 1940s, Salter introduced to American psychotherapy
a Pavlov
ian model of hypnotherapy
and self-hypnosis
training.
at East 84th Street) psychologist with only a BA. Salter spoke seven languages fluently . He first made his mark clearing out the alcoholic's ward at New York's Bellevue Hospital by treating patients with hypnosis
and teaching them self-hypnosis
(autosuggestion
).
. He was a dedicated critic of Freud. His book "The Case Against Psychoanalysis" was so controversial that the New York Times gave it two reviews, one extremely positive and one extremely negative.
Salter proclaimed in this post-war tome, "psychoanalysis has outlived its usefulness." Salter chucked psychoanalysis and replaced it with Pavlovian conditioning
under hypnosis
. In the conditioned reflex, he has seen the essence of hypnosis
. He gave a rebirth to hypnotism by combining it with classical conditioning
.
Andrew Salter was and remains the most passionate opponent of Classical Freudian Psychoanalysis
and believed that A. A. Brill (who was Sigmund Freud's official English translator) had "homogenized" Freud's work and deliberately omitted passages which Brill considered to be too radical, conflicting or bizarre. Salter spent three years studying everything Freud and his contemporaries had written, including correspondence with Carl Jung
and Anna Freud
, mostly in the original German before writing his "autopsy" of Psychoanalysis, "The Case Against Psychoanalysis" which today remains the best work ever written critiquing Freud's theories. Today's academic texts "soft pedal" many of Freud's theories, making Psychoanalysis more "palatable" due largely in part to Salter's works and those who came after him.
Salter believed in releasing personal "inhibitions" by practicing techniques leading to what he called "excitation" which results in "disinhibition", a state which he described as akin to being slightly drunk. Chapter 8 in "Conditioned Reflex Therapy" contains all of the "exercises" (like the deliberate use of the word "I") leading to a state of excitation. Today, excitation, a term from the Pavlovian lexicon, might be referred to as a combination of "assertion" and "disinhibition". Salter, as did other "behaviorists" of the time, also had his patients learn & practice Edmund Jacobson's technique of "progressive relaxation".
) during the post World War II
era.
) by Richard Rodriguez, a student leader and newspaper Editor-in-Chief of "The (Baruch College) Ticker". Rodriguez, who was introduced to Salter's work by ex-Marine and fellow student, Brian Guerre. After corresponding with Salter, Rodriguez held training sessions on campus in the office of his "Health Sciences Society" organization which he founded in 1972. Over a two year period, Rodriguez trained over two hundred students in progressive relaxation and autosuggestion
, which improved the students' ability to study and perform better on exams. Mr. Rodriguez's motto was "relax to your purpose". Rodriguez has also advanced the theory that all human conflict is based on each individual's (or group's) unfulfilled (long term/life long) expectations, which may be modified to a limited extent, through Salter's techniques of personality reconstruction.
In a 2008 phone interview, Rodriguez remarked: "Although we now know much more about the workings and chemistry of the brain then was known 65 years ago, Salter's techniques remain extremely effective and life altering. His works remained in print for over 25 years and have been translated in over a dozen languages and his books have earned numerous accolades. Proponents of Behavior Modification, Assertiveness Training, Auto-relaxation, Progressive (Systematic) Desensitization & Psychoprophylaxis have all used principles and applications proposed, developed or applied by Salter, whether or not they acknowledge that reality."
Andrew Salter, Behavior Therapist, 82, Dies
By Karen Freeman (Published: October 9, 1996)
Andrew Salter, a psychologist who helped develop the theoretical underpinnings and clinical applications of behavior therapy decades before the field became popular, died on Monday at his home in Manhattan. He was 82.
The cause was cancer, said Dr. William J. Salter, his son.
Mr. Salter, recognized as a founder of behavior therapy, was one of the first to take the findings from experimental psychology on things like conditioned reflexes and apply those principles to solving people's problems. He rejected psychoanalysis, with its years of probing into the roots of neuroses, arguing in the 1940s that a psychologist could help people who were overly anxious, shy or depressed much more quickly by teaching them to change their behavior.
Dr. Gerald C. Davison, a psychology professor at the University of Southern California, wrote that Mr. Salter had been so far ahead of the behaviorist wave of the 1960s that many younger behavioral psychologists were unaware of his work.
He said Mr. Salter's ideas have become so widely accepted that he is often not formally cited when contemporary writers in behavior therapy refer to assertion training, expressiveness training, 'getting in touch with one's feelings,' all early ideas of Mr. Salter's that became popular later.
Dr. Davison made those comments in recommending that the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy present Mr. Salter with its lifetime achievement award, which it will do posthumously, on Nov. 23. He is the second psychologist to win the award.
Mr. Salter took an unconventional path to an unusual career. Born in Waterbury, Conn., he graduated from New York University in 1937 with a bachelor's degree in psychology and a burning interest in research, but no patience for postgraduate work. I had no desire to spend the rest of my life studying the reactions of rats lost in labyrinths, he once said.
He plunged into research and clinical practice, which was possible with a bachelor's degree at the time, and was allowed to continue to practice when the state later set more rigid licensing standards. He continued his practice until a few months ago.
Hypnosis had captured Mr. Salter's interest in college, and he looked for ways to use it in clinical practice. He developed techniques for self-hypnosis but initially found it hard to publish his work because he did not have the necessary academic credentials. A psychologist at Yale University, Dr. Clark Leonard Hull, helped him publish an article in The Journal of General Psychology in 1941. He came to national attention that year when Life magazine publicized his ideas about short-term psychotherapy. In 1944, he published his first book, What Is Hypnosis?
In 1949, Mr. Salter published Conditioned Reflex Therapy, which took many of the principles developed by those who did watch rats run mazes and used them to develop short-term therapies for neuroses. In an interview, Dr. Davison called it a landmark book in experimentally based psychotherapy.
The therapy Mr. Salter employed encouraged patients to express their emotions and used visual imagery to reduce anxiety. It also moved people past their fears by gradually getting them accustomed to being around the things they feared. [progressive or systematic desensitization
]
In 1952, Mr. Salter published The Case Against Psychoanalysis, in which he looked at the scientific basis for that field and pronounced it weak. The book generated much controversy, said Dr. Alan E. Kazdin, a psychology professor at Yale, particularly because Mr. Salter used such vivid language to wield his literary club. One of his phrases was that trying to pin down psychoanalysis was like nailing lemon meringue to a wall, Dr. Kazdin said. But what made him special was that he didn't just criticize. He came up with an alternative, applied it and helped develop a whole movement.
Besides his son William, of Harvard, Mass., Mr. Salter is survived by his wife, Rhoda; another son, Robert, of Tarrytown, N.Y.; a sister, Bertha Seigel of Montgomery County, Md., and three grandchildren.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F01EFD8173EF93AA35753C1A960958260
[Obituary Submitted by Richard Rodriguez (July 23, 2008), with gratitude, admiration and respect]
film The Manchurian Candidate
the Chinese cite Salter's work as their inspiration to brainwash the soldiers.
Behaviour therapy
Behaviour therapy, or behavior therapy is an approach to psychotherapy based on learning theory which aims to treat psychopathology through techniques designed to reinforce desired and eliminate undesired behaviours.-History:...
which emphasized assertive and expressive behaviour as the way to combat the inhibitory personality traits which Salter believed were the underlying cause of most neuroses. In the 1940s, Salter introduced to American psychotherapy
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is a general term referring to any form of therapeutic interaction or treatment contracted between a trained professional and a client or patient; family, couple or group...
a Pavlov
Pavlov
-People:*Pavlov *Ivan Pavlov, a psychologist famous for his experiment in classical conditioning.-Places:*in the Czech Republic:**Pavlov **Pavlov **Pavlov **Pavlov...
ian model of hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy is a therapy that is undertaken with a subject in hypnosis.The word "hypnosis" is an abbreviation of James Braid's term "neuro-hypnotism", meaning "sleep of the nervous system"....
and self-hypnosis
Self-hypnosis
Self-hypnosis is a form of hypnosis which is self-induced, and normally makes use of self-suggestion . Listening to pre-recorded audio or other media is often mistaken for self-hypnosis, but is just another form of hypnosis....
training.
Career
Andrew Salter received a BA from NYU, and was "grand-fathered in" as a practicing (Manhattan at 1000 Park Avenue1000 Park Avenue
1000 Park Avenue is an apartment building on the Upper East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is located at the northwest corner of the intersection of Park Avenue and East 84th Street....
at East 84th Street) psychologist with only a BA. Salter spoke seven languages fluently . He first made his mark clearing out the alcoholic's ward at New York's Bellevue Hospital by treating patients with hypnosis
Hypnosis
Hypnosis is "a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation and heightened imagination."It is a mental state or imaginative role-enactment . It is usually induced by a procedure known as a hypnotic induction, which is commonly composed of a long series of preliminary...
and teaching them self-hypnosis
Self-hypnosis
Self-hypnosis is a form of hypnosis which is self-induced, and normally makes use of self-suggestion . Listening to pre-recorded audio or other media is often mistaken for self-hypnosis, but is just another form of hypnosis....
(autosuggestion
Autosuggestion
Autosuggestion is a psychological technique that was developed by apothecary Émile Coué from the late 19th century to the early 20th century.-Origins:...
).
Criticism of Psychoanalysis
Salter was the first nationally recognized opponent of psychoanalysisPsychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...
. He was a dedicated critic of Freud. His book "The Case Against Psychoanalysis" was so controversial that the New York Times gave it two reviews, one extremely positive and one extremely negative.
Salter proclaimed in this post-war tome, "psychoanalysis has outlived its usefulness." Salter chucked psychoanalysis and replaced it with Pavlovian conditioning
Conditioning
Conditioning may refer to:* In psychology, the process of performing some particular action to directly influence an individual's learning; see education...
under hypnosis
Hypnosis
Hypnosis is "a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation and heightened imagination."It is a mental state or imaginative role-enactment . It is usually induced by a procedure known as a hypnotic induction, which is commonly composed of a long series of preliminary...
. In the conditioned reflex, he has seen the essence of hypnosis
Hypnosis
Hypnosis is "a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation and heightened imagination."It is a mental state or imaginative role-enactment . It is usually induced by a procedure known as a hypnotic induction, which is commonly composed of a long series of preliminary...
. He gave a rebirth to hypnotism by combining it with classical conditioning
Classical conditioning
Classical conditioning is a form of conditioning that was first demonstrated by Ivan Pavlov...
.
Andrew Salter was and remains the most passionate opponent of Classical Freudian Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...
and believed that A. A. Brill (who was Sigmund Freud's official English translator) had "homogenized" Freud's work and deliberately omitted passages which Brill considered to be too radical, conflicting or bizarre. Salter spent three years studying everything Freud and his contemporaries had written, including correspondence with Carl Jung
Carl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and the founder of Analytical Psychology. Jung is considered the first modern psychiatrist to view the human psyche as "by nature religious" and make it the focus of exploration. Jung is one of the best known researchers in the field of dream analysis and...
and Anna Freud
Anna Freud
Anna Freud was the sixth and last child of Sigmund and Martha Freud. Born in Vienna, she followed the path of her father and contributed to the newly born field of psychoanalysis...
, mostly in the original German before writing his "autopsy" of Psychoanalysis, "The Case Against Psychoanalysis" which today remains the best work ever written critiquing Freud's theories. Today's academic texts "soft pedal" many of Freud's theories, making Psychoanalysis more "palatable" due largely in part to Salter's works and those who came after him.
Behaviorism
Salter also brought attention to the fact that Pavlovian Psychology was a lot more than simple Classical Conditioning, citing the work done in Pavlov's Russian laboratory for over a quarter of a century. Salter is considered by many to be the "father of behavior therapy". Salter is certainly one of the first psychotherapists who adapted and applied learning theories to clinical practice.Salter believed in releasing personal "inhibitions" by practicing techniques leading to what he called "excitation" which results in "disinhibition", a state which he described as akin to being slightly drunk. Chapter 8 in "Conditioned Reflex Therapy" contains all of the "exercises" (like the deliberate use of the word "I") leading to a state of excitation. Today, excitation, a term from the Pavlovian lexicon, might be referred to as a combination of "assertion" and "disinhibition". Salter, as did other "behaviorists" of the time, also had his patients learn & practice Edmund Jacobson's technique of "progressive relaxation".
Hypnotherapy
Salter's hypnotic and relaxation techniques were first explained in his book, "What Is Hypnosis?" which was proclaimed a work of genius by Theodore X. Barber, a physiologist who researched hypnotic induction (Barber and CalverleyBarber and Calverley
Theodore Xenophon Barber and David Smith Calverley were psychologists who studied "hypnotic behavior". They measured how susceptible patients were to hypnotic induction. One result of their research was showing that the hypnotic induction was not superior to motivational instructions in...
) during the post World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
era.
Assertiveness
Salter is often considered to be the founder of assertiveness training, although he did not use the term himself. His book Conditioned Reflex Therapy (1949) describes many case studies in which he used primitive assertiveness techniques, termed "excitatory exercises", which became the basis of subsequent behavior therapy for assertiveness.Legacy
Salter's techniques were revived among college students during the early and mid-1970s at Bernard M. Baruch College (City University of New YorkCity University of New York
The City University of New York is the public university system of New York City, with its administrative offices in Yorkville in Manhattan. It is the largest urban university in the United States, consisting of 23 institutions: 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E...
) by Richard Rodriguez, a student leader and newspaper Editor-in-Chief of "The (Baruch College) Ticker". Rodriguez, who was introduced to Salter's work by ex-Marine and fellow student, Brian Guerre. After corresponding with Salter, Rodriguez held training sessions on campus in the office of his "Health Sciences Society" organization which he founded in 1972. Over a two year period, Rodriguez trained over two hundred students in progressive relaxation and autosuggestion
Autosuggestion
Autosuggestion is a psychological technique that was developed by apothecary Émile Coué from the late 19th century to the early 20th century.-Origins:...
, which improved the students' ability to study and perform better on exams. Mr. Rodriguez's motto was "relax to your purpose". Rodriguez has also advanced the theory that all human conflict is based on each individual's (or group's) unfulfilled (long term/life long) expectations, which may be modified to a limited extent, through Salter's techniques of personality reconstruction.
In a 2008 phone interview, Rodriguez remarked: "Although we now know much more about the workings and chemistry of the brain then was known 65 years ago, Salter's techniques remain extremely effective and life altering. His works remained in print for over 25 years and have been translated in over a dozen languages and his books have earned numerous accolades. Proponents of Behavior Modification, Assertiveness Training, Auto-relaxation, Progressive (Systematic) Desensitization & Psychoprophylaxis have all used principles and applications proposed, developed or applied by Salter, whether or not they acknowledge that reality."
Publications
The Salter family has recently promoted the re-publication of "Conditioned Reflex Therapy" which was Salter's most influential work.Obituary
Obituary: New York TimesAndrew Salter, Behavior Therapist, 82, Dies
By Karen Freeman (Published: October 9, 1996)
Andrew Salter, a psychologist who helped develop the theoretical underpinnings and clinical applications of behavior therapy decades before the field became popular, died on Monday at his home in Manhattan. He was 82.
The cause was cancer, said Dr. William J. Salter, his son.
Mr. Salter, recognized as a founder of behavior therapy, was one of the first to take the findings from experimental psychology on things like conditioned reflexes and apply those principles to solving people's problems. He rejected psychoanalysis, with its years of probing into the roots of neuroses, arguing in the 1940s that a psychologist could help people who were overly anxious, shy or depressed much more quickly by teaching them to change their behavior.
Dr. Gerald C. Davison, a psychology professor at the University of Southern California, wrote that Mr. Salter had been so far ahead of the behaviorist wave of the 1960s that many younger behavioral psychologists were unaware of his work.
He said Mr. Salter's ideas have become so widely accepted that he is often not formally cited when contemporary writers in behavior therapy refer to assertion training, expressiveness training, 'getting in touch with one's feelings,' all early ideas of Mr. Salter's that became popular later.
Dr. Davison made those comments in recommending that the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy present Mr. Salter with its lifetime achievement award, which it will do posthumously, on Nov. 23. He is the second psychologist to win the award.
Mr. Salter took an unconventional path to an unusual career. Born in Waterbury, Conn., he graduated from New York University in 1937 with a bachelor's degree in psychology and a burning interest in research, but no patience for postgraduate work. I had no desire to spend the rest of my life studying the reactions of rats lost in labyrinths, he once said.
He plunged into research and clinical practice, which was possible with a bachelor's degree at the time, and was allowed to continue to practice when the state later set more rigid licensing standards. He continued his practice until a few months ago.
Hypnosis had captured Mr. Salter's interest in college, and he looked for ways to use it in clinical practice. He developed techniques for self-hypnosis but initially found it hard to publish his work because he did not have the necessary academic credentials. A psychologist at Yale University, Dr. Clark Leonard Hull, helped him publish an article in The Journal of General Psychology in 1941. He came to national attention that year when Life magazine publicized his ideas about short-term psychotherapy. In 1944, he published his first book, What Is Hypnosis?
In 1949, Mr. Salter published Conditioned Reflex Therapy, which took many of the principles developed by those who did watch rats run mazes and used them to develop short-term therapies for neuroses. In an interview, Dr. Davison called it a landmark book in experimentally based psychotherapy.
The therapy Mr. Salter employed encouraged patients to express their emotions and used visual imagery to reduce anxiety. It also moved people past their fears by gradually getting them accustomed to being around the things they feared. [progressive or systematic desensitization
Systematic desensitization
Systematic desensitization is a type of behavioral therapy used in the field of psychology to help effectively overcome phobias and other anxiety disorders. More specifically, it is a type of Pavlovian therapy / classical conditioning therapy developed by a South African psychiatrist, Joseph Wolpe...
]
In 1952, Mr. Salter published The Case Against Psychoanalysis, in which he looked at the scientific basis for that field and pronounced it weak. The book generated much controversy, said Dr. Alan E. Kazdin, a psychology professor at Yale, particularly because Mr. Salter used such vivid language to wield his literary club. One of his phrases was that trying to pin down psychoanalysis was like nailing lemon meringue to a wall, Dr. Kazdin said. But what made him special was that he didn't just criticize. He came up with an alternative, applied it and helped develop a whole movement.
Besides his son William, of Harvard, Mass., Mr. Salter is survived by his wife, Rhoda; another son, Robert, of Tarrytown, N.Y.; a sister, Bertha Seigel of Montgomery County, Md., and three grandchildren.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F01EFD8173EF93AA35753C1A960958260
[Obituary Submitted by Richard Rodriguez (July 23, 2008), with gratitude, admiration and respect]
In the media
In the original Frank SinatraFrank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
film The Manchurian Candidate
The Manchurian Candidate (1962 film)
The Manchurian Candidate is a 1962 American Cold War political thriller film starring Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh and Angela Lansbury, and featuring Henry Silva, James Gregory, Leslie Parrish and John McGiver...
the Chinese cite Salter's work as their inspiration to brainwash the soldiers.