August 20, 2014

August 20, 2014

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Behaviorist

Dear Reader, 

 

This writer has bought and is reading the book “General Behaviorology: The Natural Science of Human Behavior” by Lawrence E. Fraley. He has spoken with Fraley twice and each time he was having a wonderful connection with this man, who writes so clearly and understandably about a subject this writer has been interested in for so long. Fraley is different from many other behaviorists, because he is head-on in addressing the importance of establishing a natural science of human behavior. It is a relief to read someone who speaks to this unapologetically and emphatically. Many other behaviorists, because they are trying to fit in with other “disciplines” are dancing around the truth regarding the superstitions, which continue to push aside a natural account of human behavior. 

This writer considers himself a Behaviorologist, because he has been suffering the implications of many socially sanctioned forms of mysticism. By having accidentally stumbled upon Radical Behaviorism, once he had withdrawn from the Ph.D. program, this author found the theoretical home he had been looking for, but was unable to find at the mentalistic  institution called Palo Alto University. 

After reading and studying - by himself - , everything regarding Skinner and, particularly, what he considered to be his most important work “Verbal Behavior” , this writer became informed about the schism within behaviorism about whether they should try to fit in or stand out. Apparently, Skinner felt compelled to fit in, but at the very end of his life he admitted to others that it was time to stand out, that it was time to establish a separate science of human behavior, comparable to biology, physics and chemistry in its natural philosophical approach. 

This writer feels extremely fortunate to know what he knows, because he also knows something, which even Fraley doesn’t talk or know much about: the way in which we communicate. Tomorrow he will be giving a seminar for the entire faculty of Butte College, where he teaches psychology. Fitting in is not anymore such a big deal as it used to be for this writer, because he has already been approved.