Organization
Preferred Citation
Restricted Access
Conditions Governing Access
Scope and Content
Conditions Governing Use
Biographical Note
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
USC Libraries Special Collections
Title: Dr. Joseph Wolpe papers
creator:
Wolpe, Joseph
Identifier/Call Number: 0197
Physical Description:
62.67 Linear Feet
114 boxes
Date (inclusive): 1940-1997
Abstract: The papers, book manuscripts, articles, notes, and audiotapes and video tapes of Dr. Joseph Wolpe, the important South African-born
American psychiatrist who helped usher in behavior therapy. Wolpe is probably best known for urging his colleagues to view
psychotherapy as an applied science in which the effectiveness of treatment is evaluated through controlled experiments.
Container: 114
Organization
The papers of Dr. Joseph Wolpe are organized into the following series:
Series 1: General Files; Series 2: Correspondence; Series 3: Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry; Series
4: Manuscripts; Series 5: Audio Tapes; Series 6: Videotapes; Series 7: Case Study Files
Preferred Citation
[Box/folder# or item name], Dr. Joseph Wolpe papers, Collection no. 0197, Special Collections, USC Libraries, University of
Southern California
Restricted Access
There are correspondence files and case study files that are considered confidential, and, therefore, access is restricted
to those files.
Conditions Governing Access
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE. Advance notice required for access.
Scope and Content
The Wolpe papers consist of correspondence, general files, book reviews, manuscripts, articles, and other documentation, video
tapes and audiotapes with case study subjects and of lectures and panels, and index cards containing his notes with patients.
Conditions Governing Use
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Manuscripts Librarian.
Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended
to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.
Biographical Note
Dr. Joseph Wolpe, the South African-born (April 20, 1915) American psychiatrist, helped usher in behavior therapy with his
treatment to desensitize phobia patients by exposing them incrementally to images of their fears. In addition to establishing
the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy and founding the Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry,
he helped to develop assertiveness training as an approach to combating depression and other emotional problems. Wolpe is
probably best known for urging his colleagues to view psychotherapy as an applied science in which the effectiveness of treatment
is evaluated through controlled experiments. The techniques of behavior therapy and relaxation techniques, guided imagery
and other scientifically validated exercises were based on theories of learning derived from the classical conditioning research
carried out by Ivan Pavlov and from the work of B.F. Skinner, John B. Watson, and Andrew Salter. A specialist in the study
and treatment of neurosis, Wolpe produced scientific data that phobias are based on learned behavior, as opposed to repressed
conflict, and can therefore be "cured" in far fewer sessions than needed in traditional psychotherapy. Wolpe's influence can
be felt in today's managed care, which favors short-term, empirically supported treatments over long-term psychotherapy.
Trained as a physician at Johannesburg’s University of Witwatersrand, Wolpe developed an interest in mental health as a medical
officer in the South African army during World War II. He was dissatisfied with the effects of electroshock therapy and other
common treatments for shell shock. Behavior therapy is based upon theoretical principles first developed in animal experiments.
Wolpe, for example, found that cats could be cured of experimentally induced "neuroses." Based on this animal research, he
developed a modality of treatment called "systematic desensitization" for people with phobias. In this procedure, fearful
patients are exposed, while relaxed, to images of what they are afraid of, beginning with the least distressing scene and
moving gradually to the most fearsome.
Wolpe set forth his findings in the landmark 1958 book Psychotherapy by Reciprocal Inhibition, one of the first scholarly
challenges to the notion that scientific evaluation is irrelevant to psychotherapy and contended that phobias are most effectively
treated by confronting them directly.
In 1965, Wolpe established a behavior therapy unit at Temple University in Philadelphia. With a small group of scientifically
oriented clinicians, he established the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy and founded the scholarly journal
Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry and edited it from its inception in 1970 until his death in 1997. He also developed
two measuring systems still in use today--the subjective anxiety scale and the fear survey schedule.
In addition to Psychotherapy by Reciprocal Inhibition (1958), major publications by Wolpe include Behavior Therapy Techniques:
Guide to the Treatment of Neuroses; Theme and Variations: A Behavior Therapy Casebook; The Practice of Behavior Therapy; and
Life without Fear: Anxiety and Its Cure. He also authored 700 journal articles.
Major awards Wolpe received include the American Psychological Association's Distinguished Scientific Award, a Psi Chi National
Distinguished Member Award and a Lifetime Achievement Award and Special Award from the Association for Advancement of Behavior
Therapy.
After retiring from Temple University, Wolpe served as a distinguished professor in the Graduate School of Education and Psychology
at Pepperdine University. Stella, his wife of 40 years, died shortly after the couple moved to Southern California in 1988.
Wolpe married Eva Gyarmati, a retired insurance underwriting manager, in 1996. He died of lung cancer in Los Angeles, CA,
on December 4, 1997.
Highlights of the Wolpe archives include Wolpe's reports on his pioneering "systematic desensitization" studies with cats;
audiotapes of a successful 16-session treatment with an intensely phobic client who was socially paralyzed by fear of fainting
in public; correspondence with Skinner and other luminaries of the behavior therapy field; videotapes of an extensive 1994
interview with Wolpe; and an interview conducted by Gerald Davison.
Wolpe was the author or editor of the following books:
Psychotherapy by Reciprocal Inhibition (1958); The Conditioning Therapies; the Challenge in Psychotherapy, edited with Andrew
Salter and L.J. Reyna (1964);
The Practice of Behavior Therapy, 1st ed. (1969);
The Practice of Behavior Therapy, 2nd ed. (1973);
Theme and Variations: A Behavior Therapy Casebook (1976); Our Useless Fears, with David Wolpe (1981); The Practice of Behavior
Therapy, 3rd ed. (1982); and The Practice of Behavior Therapy, 4th ed. (1990).
Roger Poppen wrote a biography of Dr. Wolpe published in 1995.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Psychotherapy -- United States -- Archival resources
Psychiatry -- United States -- Archival resources
Videotapes
Agoraphobia -- Case studies
Psychotherapy -- South Africa -- Archival resources
Psychology -- South Africa -- Archival resources
Phobias -- South Africa -- Archival resources
Behavior therapy -- South Africa -- Archival resources
Psychology -- United States -- Archival resources
Phobias -- United States -- Archival resources
Behavior therapy -- United States -- Archival resources
Psychiatry -- South Africa -- Archival resources
Behavior therapy -- Case studies
Audiotapes
Correspondence
Manuscripts
Pergamon Press, Inc -- Archives
Skinner, B. F. (Burrhus Frederic) -- Archives
Borislow, Boris -- Correspondence
Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry -- Archives
Lazarus, Arnold A. -- Correspondence
Latimer, Paul -- Correspondence
Reyna, Leo J. -- Correspondence
Panzetta, Anthony -- Correspondence
Wolpe, Joseph
Wolpe, Joseph -- Correspondence
American Psychiatric Association -- Archives
Wolpe, Joseph -- Archives
Behavior Therapy and Research Society -- Archives
Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy -- Archives