SKINNER, B(urrhus) F(rederick)

(1904-1990)

   US psychologist and writer whose cogently argued (and just as cogently refuted) brand of behaviourism dominated that theory of PSYCHOLOGY for many years in the USA, and provides the basic tenets forhis one work of fiction, Walden Two (1948), depicting a UTOPIA whose inhabitants grow up as successful experiments in behavioural engineering. The title refers, of course, to Walden, or Life in the Woods (1854) byHenry David Thoreau (1817-1862). Walden Two is conducted in the main as a dialogue between Castle and Frazier, two colleagues of a professor named Burris, a clear stand-in for the author himself. Frazier, who has foundedthe colony, dismisses - as BFS later did himself in Beyond Freedom and Dignity (1972) - the traditional notions of free will, and disparagesdemocratic forms of government; his opponent, Castle, argues for the time-tested liberal solutions to the problems of human happiness. Burris seems neutral, but the colony, with its creches, positive reinforcement regimes and transparently happy residents, is obviously intended to represent the power of Frazier's ideas.

   JC

   See also: SCIENTIFIC ERRORS; SOCIOLOGY.