Hayes, L. J., & Fredericks, D. W. (1999). Interbehaviorism and Interbehavioral Psychology. In W. O'Donohue & R. Kitchener (Eds.) Handbook of Behaviorism (pp. 71-96). San Diego, CA, US: Academic Press.
This chapter discusses interbehaviorism and interbehavioral psychology. Interbehaviorism is one of the most overlooked systems in psychology's history. Jacob Robert Kantor (1888–1984) was a prolific contributor to the psychological and philosophical literature for over six decades. Speculation as to the reasons for this obscurity has focused on a number of issues, including his ponderous writing style and his harsh and unwavering criticism of dualism. “Traditional beliefs, cultural rituals, diverse social relations, and economic opportunism” led to conventional understandings within groups and discord between groups. More important than his dismissal of dualistic thinking was the obligation it provided to formulate a philosophical system void of it. Kantor described four stages in the development of naturalistic thinking in science. The first and second of these were a rejection of animism and a control of descriptive abstractions. The third stage entailed the development of field constructions; and the forth, an explicit treatment of behavior field. Finally Kantor's contribution to psychology has been to provide a formulation of this subject matter in the field theoretical perspective of contemporary science more generally—a formulation as yet to be fully adopted in psychology and which may find illustration in Kantor's work.