Mental Disorder, Learning and Psychotherapy

Abstract

In recent years there has been a renewed interest in the development of therapeutic concepts directly derived from learning theory. The aim of this thesis is to examine concepts of mental disorder and psychotherapy in relation to learning principles. This involves, after some preliminary definitions, a survey of theory and practice in regard to mental disorder and therapy from early times to the present day, in order to get some indication of the broad trends of development and some account of the major theories now competing for recognition. Some discussion of relevant learning theories and principles follows, but no attempt is made to give any comprehensive coverage of the entire field, which in itself, would be an ambitious task for a thesis.