Matthew Lewis Israel (born May 27, 1933) is a controversial American behavioral psychologist who is known for founding the Judge Rotenberg Center and inventing the Graduated Electronic Decelerator, a device used by the center on disabled students, and condemned as torture by advocacy groups and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture. As a freshman in college, Israel read B. F. Skinner's novel, Walden Two, in which the heroes build a utopia by conditioning the residents of a commune through the behaviorist principles of reward and punishment. Israel said that reading Walden Two was like a "religious conversion" for him. After reading the book, Israel devoted himself to making the utopia described in it a reality. Israel said that the period between reading the book and his first attempts to start the utopia was a very difficult time of his life. "I thought about committing suicide", he said. "If I couldn't bring a community into existence, [in] what sense was life worth living?" Israel went on to study behaviorism under B. F. Skinner and to receive his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1960. In 1966, Israel attended a Walden Two conference, where he shared ideas with Walden Two enthusiasts about how to start the utopia. Israel created the Association of Social Design, an organization for people trying to create behaviorist communities on the principles laid out in Walden Two. In 1967 Israel tried for the first time to build a utopia modeled after Walden Two by starting a small communal house in Arlington, Massachusetts. While at the house, Israel met a 3-year-old resident whose mother allowed him to perform behavioral experiments on her. Israel learned that with the use of punishment, he could control and reshape her behavior as he desired. When his first attempt to build a utopia failed, he tried a second time. The second attempt also quickly failed. Israel believed that the reason the experiments had failed was because he had too little control over the participants, and because they all had the option to move out. Israel then decided to build a school for people with disabilities, as he knew that he would be able to practice behaviorism on them with very few restrictions. After starting the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center, he gave up on further attempts to build a utopia because he was getting so much satisfaction from running the school. The school has since been condemned for torture by the United Nations special rapporteur on torture. In 2011, Israel was indicted on criminal charges of child endangerment, obstructing justice, and acting as an accessory after the fact. He was forced to resign his position at the JRC as part of a plea deal to avoid prosecution.
Biography
Early life and education In 1950, Israel enrolled at Harvard University as a Fine Arts major, having found "traditional psychology difficult to take". In his freshman year he took a class in behaviorism with B. F. Skinner to get a required science credit. During this time he read Skinner's book, Walden Two, in which the heroes build a utopia by conditioning the residents of a commune through the behaviorist principles of reward and punishment. Israel said that reading Walden Two was like a "religious conversion" for him. After reading the book, he devoted himself to making the utopia described in it a reality.I knew what I wanted to do with my life... I wanted to start a real utopian behavioral community.
Attempts to build a utopia After graduating from Harvard in 1960, Israel started a firm for the design and marketing of B. F. Skinner's teaching machines, with the hope of raising enough capital to establish a community in the form of Walden Two. The firm was unsuccessful, and after several years he closed it down and went on with his plans to build the community anyway. In 1966, Israel attended a Walden Two conference, where he shared ideas with Walden Two enthusiasts about how to start the behaviorist utopia. Israel created the Association of Social Design (ASD), an organization for people trying to create behaviorist communities on the principles laid out in Walden Two. Israel planned for the commune that they would create to be called Walden Three. In a correspondence with a couple named Dan and Marnie who were interested in the project, Israel suggested that Marnie would be expected to have sex with him if they joined the commune. After a series of letters between Israel and Dan, in which Marnie's opinion on the matter was not at any point discussed, the couple decided not to join. In 1967, Israel tried for the first time to build a utopian commune modeled after Walden Two by starting a small communal house in Arlington. One resident at the Arlington house was a three-year-old girl who was poorly behaved. The girl's mother agreed to let Israel try to modify her behavior: he described the use of positive reinforcement, time-out, and physical punishment. Israel reports that he did not see significant changes in her behavior until he disciplined her with physical punishment in the form of a slap across the face. He also noticed that using physical punishment, he could make her stop crying. After working with her for some time, Israel reported that he could control the child's behavior with just a glance or a shake of the head. From that point on, Israel said, "Instead of being an annoyance, she became a charming addition, a charming individual to the house".
Behavior Research Institute
After performing behavioral experiments on six autistic children at the Bradly Hospital, Israel founded the Behavior Research Institute in 1971 (which later changed its name to the Judge Rotenberg Center). Israel insisted that the first employees of the school had to be people interested in Walden Two, though he later had to drop that requirement to keep the institute well-staffed. However, Israel reports that the school still shared many similarities with the town in Walden Two.
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