Vic Meyer
{{Short description|British psychologist (died 2005)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Victor Campbell Meyer
| other_names = Vic Meyer
| nationality = British
| occupation = Psychologist
| known_for = Behavioral therapy (exposure response prevention)
}}
Victor Campbell Meyer, or Vic Meyer, was a British psychologist at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School of the University of London (now UCL Medical School) and has been called the father of behavioral case formulation,{{Cite book|title = Beyond Diagnosis: Case Formulation in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, 2nd Edition|last = Bruch|first = Michael|publisher = Wiley|year = 2015|isbn = 978-1-119-96076-8|location = Chichester, UK}} an approach toward understanding complex psychiatric problems using learning principles derived from scientific psychological research and uniquely adapted to the individual case by means of the experimental method{{Cite journal|title = Behavioral analysis of clinical cases|last = Meyer|first = Vic & Turkat, Ira|date = 1979|journal = Journal of Behavioral Assessment|doi = 10.1007/bf01321368|volume=1|issue = 4|pages=259–270|s2cid = 144133076}} as a way to develop an effective intervention regimen.{{Cite book|title = Behavior Therapy in Clinical Psychiatry|last = Meyer|first = Vic & Chesser, Edward|publisher = Penguin Books|year = 1970}} Meyer is credited by the British Psychological Society for his influential work in creating case formulation{{Cite book|title = Beyond Diagnosis: Case Formulation Approaches in CBT|last = Bruch|first = Michael & Bond, Frank (Eds.)|publisher = Wiley|year = 1998|isbn = 978-0471982227|location = Chichester, England}} along with three other innovators:{{Cite web|url = https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/social-and-applied-sciences/salomons-centre-for-applied-psychology/docs/resources/DCP-Guidelines-for-Formulation.pdf|title = Good Practice Guidelines on the use of Psychological Formulation}} Hans Eysenck, Monte B. Shapiro,{{Cite web|url = https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/may/02/guardianobituaries1|title = Monte Shapiro Obituary|website = TheGuardian.com|date = 2000}} and Ira Turkat.{{Cite book|title = Behavioral Case Formulation|editor-last = Turkat|editor-first = Ira |publisher = Plenum Publishing|year = 1985|isbn = 978-0306420474|location = New York}} Turkat credited Meyer as the pioneer of the framework of what is generally known today as case formulation,{{Cite book|title = Foreword To Beyond Diagnosis|last = Turkat|first = Ira|publisher = Wiley|year = 2015|edition = Second}} a required core skill for all British practicing psychologists since 2011.
Early years
Prior to becoming a psychologist, Meyer was an RAF pilot. His plane was shot down in France during the Second World War, and he was captured as a Prisoner of War.
Early career
Early in his career as a psychologist (mid 1960s), Meyer created the first successful psychological treatment for obsessive-compulsive motor rituals{{Cite book|title = National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Clinical Guidelines, No. 31. National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health (UK). Leicester (UK): British Psychological Society; 2006}} known as response prevention — which became a well established, scientifically validated treatment method used around the world{{Cite book|title = Handbook of Exposure Therapies|last = Richard|first = David & Lauterbach, Dean (Eds.)|publisher = Academic Press|year = 2006|isbn = 978-0125874212|location = Waltham, MA}} for children{{Cite book|title = Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology: From Theory to Practice, 3rd Edition|last = Herbert|first = Martin|publisher = Wiley|year = 2006|isbn = 978-0-470-01257-4|location = Hoboken, NJ}} and adults{{Cite journal|title = Cognitive behavioral therapy of obsessive-compulsive disorder|last = Foa|first = Edna|date = 2010|journal = Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience|pmid = 20623924|pmc=3181959|volume=12|issue = 2|pages=199–207|doi = 10.31887/DCNS.2010.12.2/efoa}} so afflicted. Meyer devised this procedure from his analysis of fear extinguishment in animals via flooding and applied it to human cases in the psychiatric setting that, at the time, were considered intractable.{{Cite journal|title = Modification of expectations in cases with obsessional rituals|last = Meyer|first = Vic|date = 1966|journal = Behaviour Research and Therapy|doi = 10.1016/0005-7967(66)90023-4|volume=4|issue = 4|pages=273–280|pmid = 5978682}} The treatment procedure is currently called exposure and response prevention (ERP) and its success clinically and scientifically has been summarized as "spectacular" by prominent psychology professor, Stanley Rachman decades following Meyer's creation of the method.{{Cite web|url = http://www.ocdhistory.net/20thcentury/behaviortherapy.html|title = Behavior Therapy for OCD: Its Origin}} Meyer was among the first psychologists to show that complex psychiatric problems could indeed be treated successfully by psychological methods.{{Cite journal|title = Edward Stewart Chesser|last = Hill|first = O.|date = 2002|journal = British Medical Journal|doi = 10.1136/bmj.325.7359.341|pmc=1123846|volume=325|issue = 7359|pages=341}}
Boards and program creations
Meyer was the Founding President of the British Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Psychotherapies (originally known as the British Association of Behavioral Psychotherapy){{Cite web|url = http://www.babcp.com/Default.aspx|title = BABCP}} and served as its first president in 1972.{{Cite web|url = http://www.babcp.com/About/Development.aspx|title = The Development of BABCP}} He also created the first behavior therapy training program in the United Kingdom at the Middlesex Hospital.BABCP News, November 2002, p.4
Recognition
Meyer was known as the top clinical trainer in behavior therapy in the United Kingdom. American psychologist Ira Turkat{{Cite journal|title = An Historical Perspective on the Impact of Case Formulation|last = Turkat|first = Ira|date = 2015|journal = The Behavior Therapist}} who worked with Meyer,{{Cite book|title = The behavior-analytic approach|last = Turkat|first = Ira & Meyer, Vic|publisher = Plenum|year = 1982|location = In P. Wachtel (Ed.) Resistance: Psychodynamic and Behavioral Approaches}} described Meyer as the most fascinating interviewer he had ever seen, who not only attracted therapists from around the world to London to observe his interviewing and case formulation skills, but Meyer often traveled across the globe interviewing patients in front of audiences of mental health professionals to teach his case formulation approach.{{Cite journal|url = https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-25/edition-10/letters|title = Case formulation—the heart of the matter|last = Turkat|first = Ira|date = 2012|journal = The Psychologist}} Meyer's interview demonstrations in front of mental health professional audiences excited other psychologists' interest.{{Cite journal|url = http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=5840932|title = When is a Behavioural Therapist not a Behavioural Therapist?|last = Butt|first = Tevor & Sedlack, Z.|date = 1979|journal = Behavioural Psychotherapy|doi = 10.1017/S0141347300005218|volume=7|pages=7–10| s2cid=145385966 |url-access = subscription}}
References
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{{Obsessive–compulsive disorder}}
{{Authority control}}
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Category:British psychologists