The Pros And Cons Of Aversion Therapy

Aversion therapy, designed to reduce the occurrence of inappropriate or undesirable thoughts and behaviours, can be viewed as both a classical conditioning technique, when a continued response (such as fear or anxiety) is produced as a response to the undesirable behaviour, and as an operant conditioning method, when such behaviours are punished. Both procedures would consist of a negative stimulus, such as an electric shock or the feeling of nausea, being presented alongside the behaviour being eliminated.
Cognitive methods for treatment are those which concern identifying the undesired thoughts of the patient and creating new thought processes to replace them. Bodies of education behind such treatments think of psychopathy as a disorder of …show more content…
These are mostly concerned with the problems that labelling can cause following a diagnosis being made. If a child were considered to be a psychopath at a young age, there would be significant stigma surrounding this diagnosis which could go on to worsen their actual behaviour. There is also the notion of a self-fulfilling prophecy around mental health diagnoses, with Reich saying that “perhaps the most remarkable property of diagnosis, and sometimes, for the diagnosed patient, the most enraging, is its capacity for inevitable self-confirmation”. A matter causing worry is the treatment of patients, who are often stripped of their human rights if considered a danger to themselves or society. This leaves them vulnerable to abuse from those treating them or to being taken advantage of by family members. Following the issues brought about from the initial diagnosis, come the problems associated with the treatment processes provoking further debate amongst human rights activists and anti-psychiatry groups, many of whom firmly protest the enforcement of involuntary treatment on the basis that it constitutes a violation of a person’s rights. As in some procedures there is potential for considerable side effects, there can be unease in implementing them. Reich encapsulates all these issues saying that diagnosing a psychiatric condition can cause “not only the loss of personal freedom and the subjection to noxious psychiatric environments and treatments, but also the possibility of life-long labelling as well as a variety of legal and social disadvantages ranging from declarations of non-responsibility in family and financial affairs to, under the most extreme circumstance, the deprivation of