Conhecer o outro: uma análise crítica do conceito de diagnóstico psicológico a partir do behaviorismo radical de B.F. Skinner

Abstract

Radical Behaviorism is a philosophy formed by conceptions about Psychology's subject matter and method that discusses its traditional practices in a critical manner. One of the topics that could be analyzed within its formulations is the psychological diagnosis, an activity that has been associated with the role of the psychologist since the emergence of Psychology as an applied science. In Skinner's work there are very few references to the term "psychological diagnosis" (or related terms). Therefore, the present research aimed at examining Skinner' s position about some of the activities and tools involved with the task of knowing behavior in the clinical context. Passages extracted from selected texts by this author were categorized in order to systematize and to analyze Skinner's statements concerning the activities of describing, explaining and classifying as well as statements about self report and psychological tests. In the midst of particularities inherent to the discussion of each of these points, the need to functionally analyze the subject-environment relation, and the bond between knowledge and manipulation are discussed as hallmarks of the knowledge of others that might engender a radical behaviorist psychology coherent with Skinner's proposals