Beyond indifference and aversion: The critical reception and belated acceptance of behavior therapy in France.

Abstract

In 1960s France, behavior therapy attracted the attention of a group of isolated pioneers largely composed of psychiatrists and some experimental psychologists. At the beginning of the 1970s, after a discreet introduction, the development of this movement provoked an adverse reaction related to the French intellectual context, which was characterized by a taste for psychoanalysis. At the height of the Cold War, this new form of therapy was, moreover, seen as a typical product of American culture, and viewed as a technique for mind control that would be incompatible with French humanist values. In this respect, the French rejection of behavioral therapies can also be placed in a broader context, one of anti-Americanism and assertion of the French "cultural exception." Thus, until the late 1980s, the development of the French behavior therapy movement was weak compared with what happened in the United Kingdom or the United States. Conversely, psychoanalysis reigned unchallenged in the French market for psychotherapy. In the early 1990s, the arrival of cognitive-behavioral therapy made a crucial difference. Hybridized with cognitive techniques, cognitive-behavioral therapy was seen as a "synthetic product" better suited to the French culture in psychotherapy than the initial model of "pure" behavior therapy. (PsycINFO Database Record

Reports of recovered memories of childhood abuse in therapy in France

“…France has very particular affinity with psychoanalytical theories. The popularity of psychoanalysis in France dates back to the 1970s, when behavioural or cognitive-behavioural methods were quite easily considered cold and dedicated to mind control (Amouroux, 2017).…”

Freudian Slip? The Changing Cultural Fortunes of Psychoanalytic Concepts

“…In addition to the greater embedding of psychoanalytic ideas within broad intellectual trends within the Francophone world, psychodynamic theories also play a larger role in the clinical practice of psychiatrists and psychologists there. As several writers have noted, the DSM has been markedly less popular in the French-speaking world than in United States, and cognitive-behavioral approaches to psychotherapy have been adopted at a much slower pace (Amouroux, 2017).…”

Perceptions of Behavior Analysis in La Francophonie: Accuracy and Tone of Posts in an Internet Forum on Autism

“…Even though interventions based on behavior analytic principles for individuals with ASD are established as evidenced-based, their use remains contested and under-utilized in many countries (Freedman, 2016;Krapfl, 2016). One country where ABA remains particularly contested and difficult to access is France (Amoureux, 2017). It is possible that, to some extent, the absence of recognition of the effectiveness of ABA for the treatment of ASD by France's higher health authorities until 2012 (Haute Autorité de Santé and Agence Nationale de l'Évaluation et de la Qualité des Établissements et Services Sociaux et Médico-Sociaux, 2012) resulted in the population's limited use of behavior analytic interventions.…”