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Somewhat off the topic: Charles Van Riper vs. Wendell Johnson

From: Gunars
Date: 05 Oct 2006
Time: 01:05:49 -0500
Remote Name: 24.19.13.251

Comments

y'all, Thanks for reminding me of some of the pioneers in stuttering therapy. Yet, as great as they were there was a problem, more so from the point of view of the followers of Charles Van Riper and Wendell Johnson. The problem was, and to a great extent still is, that instead of seeing "General Semantics" (much of it adapted in Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy) of Wendell Johnson and what I call "Proprioceptive Control" (my original term for stuttering modification) as two complimentary aspects of stuttering therapy, they fought each other like cats and dogs at the stuttering conferences (according to my early stuttering therapists). I don't know if Joseph Sheehan and his "Systematic desensitization" (my term for "voluntary pseudo-stuttering") also got into the cat fight. Even today I think that there are many therapists who do not see that all three techniques are complementary and none of them alone can quite accomplish the job. We, as person's who stutter (General Semantics) best face our trauma through voluntary pseudo stuttering while using BOTH fluency shaping and stuttering modification techniques. Is anyone out there who does not agree? Gunars


Last changed: 10/23/06