The Broken Achilles Heel of Behavior Therapy: A Couple of Reflections on the Function Analysis

This manuscript is part of a special issue to commemorate professor Paul Eelen, who passed away on August 21, 2016. Paul was a clinically oriented scientist, for whom learning principles (Pavlovian or operant) were more than salivary responses and lever presses. His expertise in learning psychology and his enthusiasm to translate this knowledge to clinical practice inspired many inside and outside academia. Several of his original writings were in the Dutch language. Instead of editing a special issue with contributions of colleagues and friends, we decided to translate a selection of his manuscripts to English to allow wide access to his original insights and opinions. Even though the manuscripts were written more than two decades ago, their content is surprisingly contemporary. This manuscript was originally published in 1992 and discusses functional analysis as the Achilles heel of cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT). Functional analysis is that part of CBT where insight in learning principles feeds into clinical case conceptualisation. Even though functional analysis was self-evident for first generation behaviour therapists, its importance has been overlooked since long. It is striking to see how modern CBT-approaches again incorporate functional assessment. First published as: Eelen, P., & Van den Bergh, O. (1992). De gebroken achillespees van de gedragstherapie: enkele bedenkingen bij de functieanalyse. Psychotherapeutisch Paspoort, 2, 25–34.