REGARDING THE IMAGE OF BEHAVIOR-THERAPY - A SURVEY AMONG AUSTRIAN PSYCHIATRISTS AND NEUROLOGISTS

In literature there are only few studies concerning the 'image' of beh avior therapy, none of them dealing with the question how a group of p rofessionals, who work with psychiatric patients, judge this psychothe rapeutic school. The authors investigated how specialists for psychiat ry and neurology or neurology and psychiatry grade behavior therapy an d/or behavior therapists. The results of this study, which was carried out anonymously by mail questionnaire, show that behavior therapy ran ks high concerning relevance in everyday practice. Furthermore behavio r therapy is being seen as suitable in the therapy of most mental diso rders, while behavior therapists show a tendency to give better grades than psychoanalysts. Finally self-assessment and assessment by psycho analysts (using 53 adjectives) are presented, where it shows that ther e are major differences in the judgement of 'common psychotherapeutic factors' between the two groups.