The Science of Self-Control

Howard Rachlin has spent much of his illustrious career exploring the science of self-control, the subject of this fascinating book. In our opinion the book may be appreciated in at least four overlapping ways. First of all, this is a textbook on self-control suited for an advanced undergraduate or graduate class. Second, it is a theoretical and empirical primer for understanding self-control, including some useful general applications to self-control in our everyday lives. Third, it is a forum for presenting some intriguing principles about behavior, especially as related to self-control. And finally, it serves as a vehicle to advocate a broad general theory of behavior, teleological behaviorism...The powerful and intriguing analysis presented in The Science of Self-Control has broad applicability, whether or not we accept the author's view of teleological behaviorism. This is indeed 'a good read.'
--Edmund Fantino and Stephanie Stolarz-Fantino (Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior )

Howard Rachlin's The Science of Self-Control is a masterwork by a master scientist. Written with elegant simplicity, exquisite precision and admirable economy, this brief 220-page book combines experimental detail, astute generalizations, mathematical rigor, and philosophical breadth-all the elements of first-rate science. Not a handbook for practitioners but a treatise on theory, it nevertheless includes many useful insights for persons seeking more felicitous ways to manage behavior, their own or that of others. Such is its authority that I expect it to become a fixture in the libraries of experimental psychologists and practicing psychotherapists, but such is the grace and clarity of its writing that I also think it will be read with pleasure by many intelligent laymen.
--Max Hocutt (Metapsychology )