Operant Conditioning in Brave New World

The operant conditioning of B.F. Skinner identifies processes which take place in life to determine human behavior and attitudes, but these theories have also been cited as ways of controlling the development of attitudes and behaviors. The world envisioned by Aldous Huxley in Brave New World is one where science has learned how to achieve that sort of control and to shape human emotions in certain ways. A consideration of Skinner's approach leads to an understanding of what Huxley perceived as possible in Brave New World.

B.F. Skinner is a name associated with behaviorism, a term referring to a form of conditioning theory such as was developed by Pavlov, Watson, and then Skinner. In considering how human actions and attitudes are formed, behaviorists emphasize the processes by which behavior is formed from the external environment. The classical conditioning paradigm was set forth by Pavlov, who noted that the introduction of a stimulus conditioned certain behavior. Pavlov's approach to conditioning was restricted to a certain range of innate responses. Watson thought we should study only overt behavior and was especially interested in the conditioning of emotions. He saw only three emotions as innate--fear, rage, and love. Watson offered an analysis of conditioning and a means of deconditioning certain behaviors, notably fear. Watson helped make classical conditioning a cornerstone of psychological theory. Skinner offered operant conditioning, a model of behavior

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before she meets Bernard, and her friend excoriates her for it: It's such horribly bad form to go on and on like this with one man. . . And you know how strongly the D.H.C. objects to anything intense or long-drawn (Huxley, 1946, 40). This is true not only of sexual love but of love between mother and son, as is evident in the story of John and Linda. Linda mouths all the accepted ideas about having children like a savage and being ashamed of having a child, but there are feelings within her that are stronger than social conditioning: But she didn't hit him. After a little time, he opened his eyes again and saw that she was looking at him. He tried to smile at her. suddenly she put her arms around him and kissed him again and again (Huxley, 1946, 128). Yet it is made clear what this society believes about such relationships in families: Psychically, it was a rabbit hole, a midden, hot with the frictions of tightly packed life, reeking with emotion. What suffocating intimacies, what dangerous, insane, obscene relationships between the members of the family group! (Huxley, 1946, 37). Individuality is also downgraded by this society, and emotions we would accept as self-esteem have been eliminated in favor of a communal "e

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