Operant Conditioning: A New Theoretical Approach in Psychosomatic Medicine

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Abstract
Recent advances in behavioral psychology have disproved the notion that autonomic responses are involuntary. New techniques based on operant conditioning have shown that when given the proper feedback and motivation, animal and human subjects can learn to control a wide variety of physiological responses. These new data suggest a behavioral alternative to present theories of psychosomatic medicine which rely heavily on psychodynamic formulations for their therapeutic technique. Such a behavioral approach would, like other forms of behavior modification, treat the symptom directly through the use of learning techniques based on operant conditioning. Experimental and clinical examples of these techniques as applied to problems of muscle tension and blood pressure are presented.