Joseph Wolpe

Joseph Wolpe (April 20, 1915 - December 4, 1997) was a South African-born psychiatrist and a founding figure of behavior therapy. Born in Johannesburg, he earned his MD from the University of the Witwatersrand, held a Ford Fellowship at Stanford University in 1956, and later worked at the University of Virginia and Temple University. His experience treating soldiers with what is now called post-traumatic stress disorder led him to reject psychoanalytic methods in favor of behavioral techniques he developed, including reciprocal inhibition, systematic desensitization and the Subjective Units of Disturbance Scale. A 2002 survey ranked him the 53rd most cited psychologist of the 20th century. He died in Los Angeles of mesothelioma.