October 9, 2014

October 9, 2014

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Behaviorist

Dear Reader, 

 

Yesterday evening’s class on memory was an enormous success. For starters, this writer decided not to give his usual quiz. This helped the students to feel at ease. Then, he talked about his own history and his withdrawal from his Ph.D. study in Psychology, after which he discovered that he was a behaviorist. All of this was to stimulate the students to think about their own lives and struggles and to invite them to talk about their memories. The entire class was engaged and many students felt comfortable enough to speak about the events going on in their lives. 

An Iraq-veteran spoke illustratively about his PTSD symptoms. He talked about his recent participation in festivities in the Ardennes to commemorate those who fought and died there in World War II. He had been to similar events in Normandy. He said that although people come there to remember war and terrible loss, over the years, these horrors slowly fade and become replaced by happy memories about the comradery among the soldiers. 

Another student, who had been abused as a girl, questioned what she remembered about herself. All she knew about herself before the age of 10 was what other people had told her and she wasn’t even sure if what they had told her was true. She didn’t get into the details, but it was clear that not knowing what had happened had bothered and frightened her a great deal.  

Other students were so excited about how our discussion about memory related to Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) that they proposed to create a video about it and put it on YouTube.  They agreed that they could create new memories for many other people by posting our interaction on Social Media. Something happened in this class. There was a lot of energy in the room and everyone was awake and involved.

Students stated that their classroom discussion demonstrated and proved to the world that SVB is possible and necessary. It seemed as if they suddenly realized that they had the power to change things. One student came to this writer to speak about her former employer. She was still in contact with her and wanted this writer to give a seminar for this big educational organization.