Bad behaviourism: analysing a psychological phenomenon

I'm afraid the author has held a premature funeral for behaviourism - those of us who work in the field of autism or intellectual disability still have to contend with its dominance in the US as a 'treatment', based on research every bit as shoddy as Watson's! It also continues to hold considerable (and equally undeserved) sway in fields like criminal justice and advertising.

Why is THE publishing such a trivial and would be salacious chronicle of events of nearly a century ago?

Thanks for this beautifully crafted piece : As written, it became increasingly difficult not to fall in love with Watson or a ‘Watson’ even with all his so called scientific “overreach “ .the watsonian soirit seen thro this piece seems as indefatigable as it was irreducible and vivacious. Just the right mix of elements in my view for scientific killer instinct . “Push beyond my facts “ ? !!! an anti scientific scientism. . Most of science still seems to regularly ‘ push beyond its facts ‘ , hence everyday there is some kind of reversal of practice and principle and overall epistemic flows... yesterday’s certainties and certitudes morphing into today’s jetsams/ recant . The leaps and bounds and false starts are all parts of the scientific canvas ... part of a broader ‘Watsonism’. And yet it is so difficult even for a psychology lay like me to dismiss the watsonisn certitude so boldly and hubristically depicted in the “Give me a dozen infants...and my own specified world to bring them up in....” . If the neonate is a tabula rasa of sorts, a blank canvas on which genetic and epigenetic forces can do scribal battles, in time it is not inconceivable to have a canvas either predominantly more genetic than epigenetic or more epigenetic than genetic depending on Whst or which genre of Watsons is in ‘ pedagogic ‘ charge. The jesuits are somewhat watsonian when they assert “ ... give me a child and I will show you the man ...” . We see this tabula rasa and the ex nihilo behaviouristic consequences on a daily basis : viewed either through scientifically trained eyes or the lay’s. Whatever this was a piece as artfully woven as it is instructive. . Basil jide fadipe.