Self-Control and Responsibility: Interfacing Gestalt and Behavioral Frameworks

The issue of “control” within the therapeutic relationship is fascinating to most psychologists, as evidenced by the now classic debate of Rogers and Skinner1 on the control of human behavior. Experimentally, we manipulate subjects to test effects of certain variables; therapeutically, we train parents to handle their children; and, recently, researchers have been investigating the efficiency of certain techniques which enable clients to manage their own behavior. The virtue and importance of self-control have been widely cited by numerous writers. London for example, states that:

In order to defend individual freedom, it is necessary to enhance the power of individuals. If behavior technology endangers freedom by giving refined powers to controllers, then the anecdote which promotes freedom is to give more refined power over their own behavior to those who are endangered. Since everyone is endangered, this means facilitating self-control in everyone.2,^{pp. 213-214}

Similarly, Mahoney and Thoresen write that:

… the notion of self-control is often associated with the ideals of freedom and self-improvement. A person who is really free is one who guides and directs his own actions. Such a person is the master both of himself and of his immediate environment.3,^{p. 20}

From the cognitive-behavioral point of view represented by these authors, then, self-control is seen as a positive process, as a means for the individual to retain his personal impact on the world around him. In fact, some writers contend that self-control is essential to maintaining one's individuality. According to Kanfer and Karoly:

A behavioral view suggests that, if at least some individual consistency is required

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for adaptive living, then the increased variability in situations will require more emphasis on and training in the individual's development of self-regulated motivations and standards and means of maintaining such consistency across situations. Implicit in these expectations is the necessity for wo