This is the first of a series of pieces on professional psychology. What you may well ask is
professional psychology? Answering that question will be the topic of an up coming
column, but the focus of today's is a mild diatribe on why, for behavior analysts, professional psychology should not be equated to clinical psychology. Why is this apparently arcane distinction important? In a phrase, the growing hegemonyof clinical psychologists over any social/behavior problem that can be given a name and placed in the DSM-IVr manual as a syndrome is a threat to behavior analysts' ability to work professionally in many areas of research, program development, and intervention. As the saying goes, "Many of my best friends are clinical psychologists", and I have spent much of my career training clinical psychologists. Further, I believe behavior analysis has much to offer clinical psychology and vice versa. Nonetheless, our clinical colleagues'
claims for dominion over every issue related to human conduct outside the laboratory are
based on exaggerated arguments for the efficacy of their therapies and the misguided
application of the medical model of psychopathology to social problems. This usurpation
needs to be challenged.

The core of my problem with clinical psychology is the medical model. In the late sixties
and early seventies, it briefly appeared that the disease model would be discarded in
clinical psychology as a function of both theoretical and empirical disproofs. Alas, this
modern Hydra has proven as difficult to kill as its equally mythical and destructive
predecessor. The interpretation of bad behavior as a symptom of an underlying disease
process leads to claims of disciplinary primacy, unnecessary encumbrances to research,
ineffective and costly interventions, and bad social policy. For these reasons even when
publishing in therapy journals, I have always strongly resisted any efforts to classify my
research and program development efforts as clinical or therapeutic. Behavior analytic
work dealing with important social problems in all arenas can stand on its own without the
sanction of clinical psychology.

Stating the obvious seems like an appropriate way to end my first column for the TBA
News. I would like to get your reactions and ideas for future columns and for the
development of the Professional Psychology committee of the Ed. Board. You can e-mail
me at Brigham@mail.wsu.edu or write to me at the Department of Psychology
Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164-4820.