February 9, 2016

February 9, 2016

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader, 

In Beyond Freedom and Dignity (1971), Skinner writes “The only hope is planned diversification, in which the importance of variety is recognized (p. 162).” This cannot come about without recognizing the interaction which sets the stage for this. Without Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) there can be no “planned diversification.” 

Absence of SVB means presence of Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB).  NVB prevents “planned diversification.” The world we live in is mainly determined by NVB.  Unless we change, as Skinner suggests, the reinforcers, we cannot create environment in which SVB will occur.

I disagree with Skinner on how new contingencies come about. The change of reinforcers will come about due to how we talk with each other and not, as Skinner and behaviorists have believed, due to what we write and read. The statement “the problem is to design a world which will be liked by people not as they now are but by those who live in it (p. 164),” is made without any awareness about SVB. 

While unknowingly responding to the ubiquity of NVB Skinner seems to assume that we cannot talk about these problems.  Due to NVB the world is not liked by people as “they now are,” but due to SVB the world would be liked by people “as they now are.”  Moreover, SVB is made possible because the contingencies of reinforcement can be adjusted and attuned by how we speak. Thus, a man would only “deliberately go mad to prove his point (p.165)” during the kind of spoken communication in which the negative contingencies are forced on him. “Out of control behavior” is not to be taken as if “madness were a special kind of freedom or as if the behavior of a psychotic could not be predicted or controlled (p.165),” but should be considered as a form of NVB. Similarly, NVB, which  is about negative emotions, is also described by “the bitterness” with which the “libertarian discusses science and technology of behavior.”