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Joseph Wolpe (20 April 1915 in Johannesburg, South Africa – 4 December 1997 in Los Angeles) was a South African psychiatrist, one of the most influential figures in Behavior Therapy. Wolpe grew up in South Africa, attending Parktown Boys' High School and obtaining his M.D. from the University of the Witwatersrand. In 1956 Wolpe was awarded a Ford Fellowship and spent a year at Stanford University in the Center for Behavioral Sciences, subsequently returning to South Africa but permanently moving to the United States in 1960 when he accepted a position at the University of Virginia. In 1965 Wolpe accepted a position at Temple University. One of the most influential experiences in Wolpe’s life was when he enlisted in the South African army as a medical officer. Wolpe was entrusted to treat soldiers who were diagnosed with what was then called "war neurosis" but today is known as post traumatic stress disorder. The mainstream treatment of the time for soldiers was drug therapy. Doctors would use a type of "truth serum" to get soldiers to talk about their experiences. It was believed that by having the soldiers talk about their experiences openly it would effectively cure their neurosis. However, this was not the case.〔Joseph Wolpe and David Wolpe, ''Our Useless Fears'', (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1981), 3–4.〕 It was this lack of successful treatment outcomes that forced Wolpe, once a dedicated follower of Freud, to question psychoanalytic therapy and search for more effective treatments options.〔Wolpe and Wolpe, ''Our Useless Fears'', 4.〕 Wolpe is most well known for his Reciprocal Inhibition techniques,〔Wolpe, J. (1954) Reciprocal inhibition as the main basis of psychotherapeutic effects. Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry, 1954;72(2):205-226〕 the most heralded being Systematic Desensitization, which revolutionized behavioral therapy. A ''Review of General Psychology'' survey, published in 2002, ranked Wolpe as the 53rd most cited psychologist of the 20th century. == Reciprocal inhibition == In Wolpe’s search for a more effective way in treating anxiety he developed different reciprocal inhibition techniques, utilizing assertiveness training. Reciprocal inhibition can be defined as anxiety being inhibited by a feeling or response that is not compatible with the feeling of anxiety. Wolpe first started using eating as a response to inhibited anxiety in the laboratory cats. He would offer them food while presenting a conditioned fear stimulus.〔Joseph Wolpe, ''Psychotherapy by Reciprocal Inhibition'', (California: Stanford University Press, 1958), 53-62.〕 After his experiments in the laboratory he applied reciprocal inhibition to his clients in the form of assertiveness training. The idea behind assertiveness training was that you could not be angry or aggressive while simultaneously assertive at same time.〔Wolpe, ''Reciprocal Inhibition'', 72–75.〕 Importantly, Wolpe believed that these techniques would lessen the anxiety producing association. Assertiveness training proved especially useful for clients who had anxiety about social situations. However, assertiveness training did have a potential flaw in the sense that it could not be applied to other kinds of phobias. Wolpe’s use of reciprocal inhibition led to his discovery of systematic desensitization. He believed that facing your fears did not always result in overcoming them but rather lead to frustration. According to Wolpe, the key to overcoming fears was "by degrees."〔Wolpe, ''Reciprocal Inhibition'', 71.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Joseph Wolpe」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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