Problems in the Interpretation of “Experimental Neurosis”

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Abstract
Because of their emotional character and avoidant topography, “experimental neurosis” and other aversively controlled animal behaviors have an appealing face validity as analogues of human psychopathology. Species differences pose serious obstacles to direct inference from the animal to the human case, however, and ethological considerations require more attention than they have received if the proper animal analogues are to be identified. The desirability of studying basic behavioral processes in simple, analyzable experimental situations is reaffirmed. The discussion also questions the universal applicability in psychopathology of the “episodic” model, according to which the organism develops pathological behavior as a result of one or a few repetitions of a traumatic experience. Factors influencing the slow, accretive development of pathology (as in Calhoun's “behavioral sinks”) deserve more attention than they have received so far.

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