Mike et al.: There was good deal of discussion of Mahoney's tragic death on
the SSCP (Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology) listserv. I have
been in touch with Mike's ex-wife, Teresa Nezworski of the University of
Texas at Dallas. Needless to say, this is a very difficult time for all
involved. A real loss for the field of psychology. Although I never met
Mike Mahoney, I was fortunate enough to exchange a few e-mails with him
several years ago. He struck me as a real gentleman and a thoughtful
scholar.
...Scott
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Palij" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)"
<[email protected]>
Cc: "Mike Palij" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, June 04, 2006 10:34 AM
Subject: [tips] Re: MICHAEL MAHONEY
On Sat, 03 Jun 2006 15:41:49 -0700, Stephen Black wrote:
On 3 Jun 2006 at 13:45, Jose Ferreira Alves wrote:
Dear Colleagues
I have a very sad new about a famous psychologist that put a big mark in
psychology and in many of his friends: Michael Mahoney
(http://www.constructivist.net/mahoney/home.htm ) commit a very violent
suicide.
I'm very sorry to hear this. I recall Michael J. Mahoney as an
accomplished cognitive behaviour modifier, although I had only limited
knowledge of his work. I think I must have at least one of his books on
my shelf.
I too have a passing familiarity with Mahoney's work primarily
through his "Scientist as Subject" (which I read shortly after it
came out and I still have a copy) and the dust-up with Skinner
and Catania.
A scan through his bibliography on the web page given by Jose
shows a highly impressive career, with many important contributions to
behaviour modification. Judging from the description on his web page
describing him as a "holistic counsellor" and details in his
autobiography, it appears, surprisingly, that he had in recent years
moved on to matters some distance from the field of behaviour
modification.
As Chris Green has already mentioned, Mahoney has an
autobiography on his website (a chapter from Marv Godfriend's
2000 "How Therapists Change") which provides a description
of his "journey" from behaviorism to constructivism. Whether
he "lost his way" (as some old-fashioned or Skinnerian behaviorists
might believe) or is working in an innovative/creative/imaginative
manner with difficult clinical problems is an issue I'll leave to history
to decide.
I was unable to find any news item reporting his death, unusual for such
an important contributor to clinical psychology. However, the report is
confirmed by the following message on the website of Salve Regina
University, June 3, 2006 ( http://www.salve.edu/salvetoday/ ):
"The university community is saddened by the passing of Dr. Michael
Mahoney, a professor in the holistic counseling department since last
September. Further details regarding arrangements will be announced as
they are shared with the university. Please keep Michael Mahoney and his
family in your thoughts and prayers."
One of the reasons for my response at this time is that I am puzzled
by the lack of news about Mahoney's death. I assume that one of the
clinical psych mailing lists have spread the news (or at least tried to
contact Mahoney or his family to verify the story) but because I'm not
on any, I really don't know. Perhaps one of TiPS' clinicians who are
on such lists can confirm? I raise this point because an examination of
the Salve Regina website has no mention of Mahoney's "passing",
Stephen's info above notwithstanding. The Salvetoday webpage
no longer has any mention of Mahoney and a search of the Salvetoday
archive produces only one hit on Mahoney, a story about his joining
the faculty in September 2005 (see:
http://www.salve.edu/salvetoday/archives/search_archDB.cfm )
Perhaps it is too soon for the university to have made a press
release but a search of Salve Regina's news release database
doesn't show anything on Mahoney's death (see:
http://www.salve.edu/salvetoday/press_release/search_releaseDB.cfm )
A general search of the university's website also failes to provide
any relevant info (see:
http://www.google.com/u/salve?q=mahoney&sa=Search )
Again, perhaps it is too soon for such announcements to have been
made (if the original description of suicide is correct, then they may
be additional complicating factors) but it occurs to me that there is
no date provided for Mahoney's death, so it's unclear how much
time the university and other sources have had to disseminate this
news. A search of news.google.com doesn't turn up any mention
nor does a search of the Providence Journal newspaper. So, can
we get additional confirmation?
-Mike Palij
New York University
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Stephen
Stephen L. Black, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology
Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
2600 College St.
Sherbrooke (Lennoxville) QC J1M 0C8
Canada
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