It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

Abstract

A brief history of the origins of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy (AABT) is followed by a discussion of the best and worst in contemporary behavior therapy as filtered through the admittedly biased perceptions of the present writer. Next comes a presentation of several issues whose resolutions are unpredictable at this time, with possible solutions being good or bad, depending on one's point of view. The paper concludes with a discussion of the present status of behavior therapy and some speculations about future trends and long-term prognoses.