Putting psychotherapy in its place: The regionalization of behavior therapy in France, Switzerland, and Belgium, 1960s–1990s

Amouroux, Rémy; Gerber, Lucie; Aronov, Milana

doi:10.1002/jhbs.22142

Cited by 5 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…During the 1970s, assertion trainers developed their procedures by borrowing from learning models and therapeutic strategies other than Wolpe’s, starting with clinical systems composed of behaviorist and cognitivist elements. This form of behavioral intervention became an early example of hybridization between reputedly competing approaches, a phenomenon that characterized the history of late twentieth-century psychotherapy far more than dogmatism (Amouroux et al, 2022; Marks, 2017). They have, for instance, drawn on New York psychologist Albert Ellis’ rational therapy (RT), which conceived of emotions as consequences of irrational belief systems.…”

Section: Neither Passive Nor Aggressive: Toward a History Of Assertiv...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The movement was structured with the creation of the Association Française de Thérapie Comportementale (AFTC) in 1971. Unlike in most other behavioral therapy associations, clinical psychologists, who in France were deeply influenced by psychoanalysis, were in the minority right away at the AFTC (Amouroux et al, 2022). The founding members included a majority of psychiatrists, including prominent academics such as Daniel Widlöcher, who was also a psychoanalyst of repute, and Pierre Pichot.…”

Section: The Introduction Of At In France "A Letter From California"mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Among the AFTC members, Viala introduced Patrick Légeron, who had trained with Liberman after her, in the work world. During his stay in the United States, Légeron had met colleagues from Northern California who, while being hospitalists, also intervened as consultants in companies on issues of human relations at work (Amouroux et al, 2022, p. 18). After his return to France, alongside his activities as a hospital psychiatrist, Légeron also started leading AT sessions in work settings, alone or with Viala, before founding his own consultancy firm in 1989, which he called Stimulus (interview with P. Légeron, April 2, 2019).…”

Section: The Introduction Of At In Francementioning

confidence: 99%

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From middle-class American women to French managers: The transatlantic trajectory of assertiveness training, c. 1950s–1980s.

Gerber

2023

History of Psychology

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This article explores the contribution of behavior therapy to the extension of psychotherapeutic notions and techniques into everyday life, focusing on the transatlantic trajectory of assertiveness training. It traces the history of this behavioral intervention into interindividual relations from its emergence as a treatment for anxiety in postwar United States to its importation into the French field of continuing professional training at the turn of the 1980s. To understand what traveled between countries and practical fields, I first consider the definition of assertiveness as a skill sitting halfway between passivity and aggressiveness, which developed in the United States along with its uses outside therapy. I relate the success and inflexions undergone by assertiveness training between the 1950s and the 1970s to theoretical and strategic innovations in behavioral therapy and psychology, as well as to the reception of political and social movements, especially the women’s movement. This article also shows that what moved between countries, sectors, and target audiences was not only an understanding of assertiveness as a socially acceptable expression of feelings, needs, and wants, but also diagnostic and action scripts fueled by the “ferment” of the 1960s. From middle-class American women to French managers, the expanded applications of assertiveness training were justified by the rhetoric of tensions between role socialization and new expectations for self-fulfillment and efficiency. Following the behavioral deficit model emphasized in assertiveness training, increasing calls for self-expression and participation prescribed communication skill training and a reconfiguration of interpersonal relations, both in the private and the work sphere.

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Section: Neither Passive Nor Aggressive: Toward a History Of Assertiv...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Introduction Of At In France "A Letter From California"mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Introduction Of At In Francementioning

confidence: 99%

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From middle-class American women to French managers: The transatlantic trajectory of assertiveness training, c. 1950s–1980s.

Gerber

2023

History of Psychology

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“…As I will demonstrate in the following, the case of sensitivity training in Sweden offers important new insights into the field of cultural research concerned with “therapeutic culture,” “therapeutic discourse,” or the “therapeutization” of Western societies in the second half of the 20th century (Amouroux et al, 2021; Eitler & Elberfeld, 2015; Marks, 2018; Maasen et al, 2011; Rose, 1996, pp. 156–168; Rosner, 2018; Tändler & Jensen, 2012; Wright, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The crying boss: Activating “human resources” through sensitivity training in 1970s Sweden

Tillema

2023

J History Behavioral Science

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This article examines the introduction of “sensitivity training” to 1970s Swedish work life. Drawing upon a range of empirical materials, I explore the politics that were involved in the process of translating and adapting this group dynamic method to the Swedish context and consider how its proponents argued for its value. By approaching sensitivity training as an attempt to govern, shape, and regulate both human beings and the work organizations of which they were a part, I argue that sensitivity training presents an unexpectedly early example of a governing rationality that has elsewhere been described and theorized as “neoliberal.” The fact that sensitivity training was established in Swedish work life already in the early 1970s thus challenges the historiography of neoliberal modes of government, which have elsewhere been associated with a neoliberal shift in state policies occurring in the 1980s and 1990s. The article demonstrates how emotionally liberating practices in the late 1960s and early 1970s were embraced by some of the most politically influential actors in contemporary Swedish society, such as the corporate sector and the trade unions. As blue‐collar trade unions and social democrats voiced increasingly far‐reaching demands concerning workplace democracy and improved workplace conditions, advocates of sensitivity training presented their method as crucial to the process of “democratizing” and “humanizing” Swedish work life. Intimately associated with the new therapies of humanistic psychology, sensitivity training was used within the corporate sector to foster a more emotional and authentic leadership style that would embrace the values of emotional awareness, self‐expression, and self‐actualization. The crying boss emerged in this context as a key figure in the project of creating a “democratic” and psychologically satisfying organization. Yet, sensitivity training was also described as a means for companies to make better use of what was now asserted as their most important economic asset: the human being. From the outset, the idealistic vision of an emotionally liberated, democratic workplace was thus entangled with a specific kind of economic rationality, in which the emotionally liberated, self‐actualizing individual emerged as a capital or asset that would be better utilized if the organization allowed—even encouraged—employees to engage in their own well‐being and self‐optimization.

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“…iiFor an example of differentiated dissemination of psychotherapeutic practices and knowledge, see Amouroux et al (2022)'s examination of the introduction of behavior therapy in the European Francophone context.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Historicizing “therapeutic culture”—Towards a material and polycentric history of psychologization

Amouroux

Gerber

Jaccard

et al. 2023

J History Behavioral Science

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Putting psychotherapy in its place: The regionalization of behavior therapy in France, Switzerland, and Belgium, 1960s–1990s

Cited by 5 publications

References 25 publications

From middle-class American women to French managers: The transatlantic trajectory of assertiveness training, c. 1950s–1980s.

From middle-class American women to French managers: The transatlantic trajectory of assertiveness training, c. 1950s–1980s.

The crying boss: Activating “human resources” through sensitivity training in 1970s Sweden

Historicizing “therapeutic culture”—Towards a material and polycentric history of psychologization

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