Arnold Lazarus

Arnold Allan Lazarus (born 1932) is a South African psychologist who is known for his contributions to behavior therapy.

Concurrently with the pioneering contributions of Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck, starting in the late 1950s and continuing through the 1970s, Lazarus developed what was arguably the first form of "broad-spectrum" cognitive behavioral therapy. Indeed, in 1958, Arnold Lazarus was the first person to introduce the terms "behavior therapy" and "behavior therapist" into the professional literature (i.e., Lazarus, A. A. "New methods in psychotherapy: a case study". South African Medical Journal, 1958, 32, 660-664). He later broadened the focus of behavioral treatment to incorporate cognitive aspects (e.g., see Arnold Lazarus' 1971 landmark book Behavior Therapy and Beyond, perhaps the first clinical text on CBT). When it became clear that optimizing therapy's effectiveness and effecting durable treatment outcomes often required transcending more narrowly focused cognitive and behavioral methods, Arnold Lazarus expanded the scope of CBT to include physical sensations (as distinct from emotional states), visual images (as distinct from language-based thinking), interpersonal relationships, and biological factors. The final product of Arnold Lazarus' approach to psychotherapy is called multimodal therapy and shares many of its assumptions and theorizing with Ellis' rational emotive behavior therapy. His scholarly output is prolific: more than 250 articles and chapters and 18 books, including his classic "The Principles of Multimodal Therapy". His interpersonal charisma, inculcated in his early South African/English upbringing, and his feisty temperament, forged in his early boxing experiences, coalesce into a powerful voice for technical eclecticism.