A Matter of Consequences, by B. F. Skinner (Knopf, 441 pp., $19.95)
A Matter of Consequences, the concluding volume of behaviorist B. F. Skinner’s autobiographical trilogy, begins with Dr. Skinner’s return to Harvard as a member of the psychology faculty a few months after the publication of Walden Two, and carries his story forward to the present day. “I don’t know any American psychologist today with whom I feel a deeper philosophical disagreement,” Carl Rogers once told the father of behaviorism, “but I have a hearty and general respect for you because you are forthright and honest in stating your views.” Readers of A Matter of Consequences, even those who unequivocally repudiate B. F. Skinner’s controversial doctrine of radical behaviorism, are likely to agree. Dr. Skinner recounts his growing estrangement from the mainstream of current psychological thought with chilly detachment; in attempting to “report my life as it was lived,” he has given us an invaluable look into the intellectual development of a career virtually unmatched in its influence on the field of psychology. Though B. F. Skinner emerges from the later pages of his fascinating autobiography as an oddly cold and narrow-minded man unable to see beyond the limitations of his original insights, he nevertheless impresses with his unfailing honesty and courage.
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