Allen Esterson brought this to our atttention from _The Atlantic_:

> >Vargas ...showed me a letter written in 1975 by the then wildly popular and
> influential pediatrician Benjamin Spock, who had been asked to comment
> on Skinner´s work for a documentary. "I´m embarrassed to say I
> haven´t read any of his work," Spock wrote, "but I know that
> it´s fascist and manipulative, and therefore I can´t approve of
> it."

http://snipurl.com/23qfgw2

Wow! I also liked this bit one paragraph earlier from this long, 
interesting article on the revival of behaviour modification in the 
smartphone era:

"In 1965, when Julie Vargas was a student in a graduate psychology 
class, her professor introduced the topic of B. F. Skinner...After 
the professor explained the evidently distasteful, outmoded process 
that became more popularly known as behavior modification, Vargas´s 
classmates began discussing the common knowledge that Skinner had 
used the harsh techniques on his daughter, leaving her mentally 
disturbed and institutionalized. Vargas raised her hand and stated 
that Skinner in fact had had two daughters, and that both were living 
perfectly normal lives. "I didn´t see any need to embarrass them by 
mentioning that I was one of those daughters," she says. "

Too bad. She should have.

Stephen

--------------------------------------------
Stephen L. Black, Ph.D.          
Professor of Psychology, Emeritus   
Bishop's University
Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada               
e-mail:  sblack at ubishops.ca
---------------------------------------------


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