A Clockwork Orange: Burgess and Behavioral Interventions

Abstract

Argues that the thinking regarding behavior analysis displayed in Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange (1986) is inadequate. The 21st chapter, first published in the US in 1986, changes the focus of the book from the morality of behavioral interventions per se to the more general issue of the existence of free will and the State's destruction of same. It is suggested that Burgess wrote his books from the standpoint of a Catholic with a belief in original sin and deity-granted free will. With regard to behavioral interventions, it is suggested that the conditioning Burgess describes would rapidly extinguish, that his understanding of the philosophical and political ramifications of behaviorism is lacking, and that he fails to acknowledge any good that could come from such interventions. ((c) 1997 APA/PsycINFO, all rights reserved)