APA Distinguished Scientific Award for the Applications of Psychology (1979)
Academic career
Institutions
University of the Witwatersrand
University of Virginia
Temple University School of Medicine (1965–1988)
Pepperdine University
Joseph Wolpe (20 April 1915 in Johannesburg, South Africa – 4 December 1997 in Los Angeles) was a South African psychiatrist and one of the most influential figures in behavior therapy.
Wolpe grew up in South Africa, attending Parktown Boys' High School and obtaining his MD from the University of the Witwatersrand.
In 1956, Wolpe was awarded a Ford Fellowship and spent a year at Stanford University in the Center for Behavioral Sciences, subsequently returning to South Africa but permanently moving to the United States in 1960 when he accepted a position at the University of Virginia.
In 1965, Wolpe accepted a position at Temple University.[1][2]
One of the most influential experiences in Wolpe's life was when he enlisted in the South African army as a medical officer. Wolpe was entrusted to treat soldiers who were diagnosed with what was then called "war neurosis" but today is known as post traumatic stress disorder. The mainstream treatment of the time for soldiers was based on psychoanalytic theory, and involved exploring the trauma while taking a hypnotic agent – so-called narcotherapy. It was believed that having the soldiers talk about their repressed experiences openly would effectively cure their neurosis. However, this was not the case.[3] It was this lack of successful treatment outcomes that forced Wolpe, once a dedicated follower of Freud, to question psychoanalytic therapy and search for more effective treatment options.[4] Wolpe is most well known for his reciprocal inhibition techniques,[5] particularly systematic desensitization, which revolutionized behavioral therapy. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Wolpe as the 53rd most cited psychologist of the 20th century,[6] an impressive accomplishment accentuated by the fact that Wolpe was a psychiatrist.
^Stanley Rachman (April 2000), "Obituaries: Joseph Wolpe (1915–1997)", American Psychologist, 55 (4): 441–442, doi:10.1037/0003-066x.55.4.431
^Pace, Eric (8 December 1997), "Dr. Joseph Wolpe, 82, Dies; Pioneer in Behavior Therapy", The New York Times
^Joseph Wolpe and David Wolpe, Our Useless Fears, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1981), 3–4.
^Wolpe and Wolpe, Our Useless Fears, 4.
^Wolpe, Joseph (1 August 1954). "Reciprocal inhibition as the main basis of psychotherapeutic effects". Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry. 72 (2): 205–226. doi:10.1001/archneurpsyc.1954.02330020073007. PMID 13180056.
^Haggbloom, Steven J.; Warnick, Renee; Warnick, Jason E.; Jones, Vinessa K.; Yarbrough, Gary L.; Russell, Tenea M.; Borecky, Chris M.; McGahhey, Reagan; Powell, John L. III; Beavers, Jamie; Monte, Emmanuelle (2002). "The 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century". Review of General Psychology. 6 (2): 139–52. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.586.1913. doi:10.1037/1089-2680.6.2.139. S2CID 145668721.
JosephWolpe (20 April 1915 in Johannesburg, South Africa – 4 December 1997 in Los Angeles) was a South African psychiatrist and one of the most influential...
exposure therapy, is a behavior therapy developed by the psychiatrist JosephWolpe. It is used when a phobia or anxiety disorder is maintained by classical...
husband of AnnMarie Howard Wolpe (1939–2011), American politician Irma Wolpe (1902–1984), Romanian-born composer JosephWolpe (1915–1997), South African...
became popularized in the 1950s and 1960s. Notable contributors were JosephWolpe in South Africa, M.B. Shapiro and Hans Eysenck in Britain, and John B...
by Andrew Salter (1961)[full citation needed] and popularized by JosephWolpe. Wolpe's belief was that a person could not be both assertive and anxious...
their methods to England in the Maudsley Hospital training program. JosephWolpe (1915–1997) was one of the first psychiatrists to spark interest in treating...
include JosephWolpe and Hans Eysenck. In general, behaviour therapy is seen as having three distinct points of origin: South Africa (Wolpe's group),...
the antecedents of the development of JosephWolpe's behavioral therapy in the 1950s. It was the work of Wolpe and Watson, which was based on Ivan Pavlov's...
Virginia Axline Carl Whitaker Albert Ellis Silvano Arieti James Bugental JosephWolpe Virginia Satir Aaron Beck Salvador Minuchin Paul Watzlawick Haim Ginott...
repeatedly as part of the therapeutic dialog. The SUD-level was developed by JosephWolpe in 1969. It has been used in cognitive-behavioral treatments for anxiety...
during the 1950s, hypnosis was used by early behaviour therapists such as JosephWolpe and also by early cognitive therapists such as Albert Ellis. Barber,...
older hypnotherapy techniques, e.g., the systematic desensitisation of JosephWolpe, the cardinal technique of early behavior therapy, was originally called...
Virginia Axline Carl Whitaker Albert Ellis Silvano Arieti James Bugental JosephWolpe Virginia Satir Aaron Beck Salvador Minuchin Paul Watzlawick Haim Ginott...
Through early research in the 1940s and the 1950s the term was used by JosephWolpe's research group. The experimental tradition in clinical psychology used...
being heavily dominated by males throughout much of the 20th century. JosephWolpe dubbed her "the mother of behavior therapy" due to her famous study of...
desensitization, which was developed by JosephWolpe in the 1940s to treat anxiety disorders and phobias, is similarly described. Wolpe's systematic desensitization...
Virginia Axline Carl Whitaker Albert Ellis Silvano Arieti James Bugental JosephWolpe Virginia Satir Aaron Beck Salvador Minuchin Paul Watzlawick Haim Ginott...
neuroses began in the 1950s in South Africa. South African-American JosephWolpe was one of the first psychiatrists to spark interest in treating psychiatric...
exposure therapy. Systematic desensitization therapy was introduced by JosephWolpe in 1958 and employs relaxation techniques with imagined situations. In...
conditioning and social learning theory. Major contributors included JosephWolpe, Hans Eysenck, and B.F. Skinner. Because behaviorism denied or ignored...
desensitization (graduated exposure therapy), which was first demonstrated by JosephWolpe and Arnold Lazarus. Applied behavior analysis (ABA)—also called behavioral...
Virginia Axline Carl Whitaker Albert Ellis Silvano Arieti James Bugental JosephWolpe Virginia Satir Aaron Beck Salvador Minuchin Paul Watzlawick Haim Ginott...
Virginia Axline Carl Whitaker Albert Ellis Silvano Arieti James Bugental JosephWolpe Virginia Satir Aaron Beck Salvador Minuchin Paul Watzlawick Haim Ginott...
Virginia Axline Carl Whitaker Albert Ellis Silvano Arieti James Bugental JosephWolpe Virginia Satir Aaron Beck Salvador Minuchin Paul Watzlawick Haim Ginott...
Virginia Axline Carl Whitaker Albert Ellis Silvano Arieti James Bugental JosephWolpe Virginia Satir Aaron Beck Salvador Minuchin Paul Watzlawick Haim Ginott...
being that one can imagine Heinrich Himmler announcing it to his SS men, or Joseph Goebbels sardonically applying it to the genocide of the Jews!" Austrian...
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