Aversion Therapy

Abstract

This technique is employed for the treatment of behaviour disorders in which the client’s behaviour transgresses convention or is immoral, even though it is highly self-rewarding. It is based on Pavlovian classical conditioning. Aversion treatment attempts to do the opposite of desensitization. Desensitization tries to reduce a patient’s fearful or unpleasant associations to a situation so that he can enter the situation with equanimity. In contrast, aversion treatment deliberately tries to eliminate certain patterns of behaviour by associating them with unpleasant stimuli. Of course, punishment has been employed in such conditions since time immemorial by parents, teachers and legislators, and even doctors once used ingenious devices of punishment ranging from special twirling stools to machines which doused water on to clients’ heads from a height until the client behaviour was altered in the desired direction. Systematic application of aversion in psychiatry began about 20 years ago with the introduction of chemical methods of aversion. Emetic drugs were usually given by injection, to induce vomiting while the client carried out his undesirable behaviour. This procedure was designed to condition the client to feel nausea whenever he subsequently tried to carry out the undesirable behaviour.