The Unsuccessful Self-Treatment of a Case of "Writer’s Block"

"The Unsuccessful Self-Treatment of a Case of "Writer's Block"" is a humorous academic article by psychologist Dennis Upper about writer's block. It contains no content except for a title, journal formatting elements, and a humorous footnote.

Published in 1974 in a peer reviewed journal, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, it is recognized as the shortest academic article ever[1] and a classic example of humor in science,[2] or at the very least among behavioral psychologists.[3] It has been cited more than 100 times.[4]

The article received a humorous positive review which was published alongside the article.[1]

I have studied this manuscript very carefully with lemon juice and X-rays and have not detected a single flaw in either design or writing style. I suggest it be published without revision. Clearly, it is the most concise manuscript I have ever seen-yet it contains sufficient detail to allow other investigators to replicate Dr. Upper's failure. In comparison with the other manuscripts I get from you containing all that complicated detail, this one was a pleasure to examine. Surely we can find a place for this paper in the Journal-perhaps on the edge of a blank page.

The article has led to at least five similarly humorous and peer-reviewed, published replication studies,[5][6][7][8][9] and several similar papers.[10][11][12][13]

More seriously, the paper is said to be a case reinforcing the image of a writer's block as a "blank page",[14] and encouraging brevity in writing.[15] It has been also used as an example that humor can indeed be found in academic publishing.[16]

This article has also prompted similar scholarly articles.[17]

References
  1. "The Shortest Science Paper Ever Published Had No Words, and Was Utterly Brilliant - RealClearScience". Retrieved October 6, 2014.
  2. "Humor in Science (Episode 1: Writer's Block) - arno simons". arno simons. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved October 6, 2014.
  3. Bassett, John E. (2010). "Perspectives in Behavior Therapy (Book)". Journal of Personality Assessment. 43 (1): 105. doi:10.1207/s15327752jpa4301_20.
  4. "Google Scholar". scholar.google.com.
  5. Molloy, Geoffery N. (1983). "The Unsuccessful Self-treatment of a Case of "writer's Block": a Replication". Perceptual and Motor Skills. 57 (2): 566. doi:10.2466/pms.1983.57.2.566. S2CID 144342829.
  6. Didden, Robert; Sigafoos, Jeff; O'Reilly, Mark F; Lancioni, Giulio E; Sturmey, Peter; LeBlanc, Linda (2007). "A Multisite Cross-Cultural Replication of Upper's (1974) Unsuccessful Self-Treatment of Writer's Block". Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. 40 (4): 773. doi:10.1901/jaba.2007.773. PMC 2078566.
  7. Hermann, Bruce P. (2016). "Unsuccessful Self-treatment of a Case of 'writer's Block': a Partial Failure to Replicate". Perceptual and Motor Skills. 58 (2): 350. doi:10.2466/pms.1984.58.2.350. S2CID 147400784.
  8. Artino, Anthony R. (2016). "The unsuccessful treatment of a case of 'Writer's Block': a replication in medical education". Medical Education. 50 (12): 1262–1263. doi:10.1111/medu.13003. PMID 27873416.
  9. Ampatzidis, Georgios (November 24, 2021). "The Unsuccessful Self-treatment of a Case of 'Writer's Block': A Replication in Science Education". Journal of Trial and Error. doi:10.36850/e7. S2CID 244567338.
  10. Mclean, Derrick C.; Thomas, Benjamin R. (2014). "Unsuccessful Treatments of "writer's Block": a Meta-analysis". Psychological Reports. 115 (1): 276–278. doi:10.2466/28.PR0.115c12z0. PMID 25153962. S2CID 20344712.
  11. Skinner, Nicholas F.; Perline, Arthur H. (2016). "The Unsuccessful Group Treatment of 'writer's Block': a Ten-year Follow-up". Perceptual and Motor Skills. 82 (1): 138. doi:10.2466/pms.1996.82.1.138. S2CID 145153409.
  12. Skinner, Nicholas F.; Perlini, Arthur H.; Fric, awrence; Werstine, E. Paul; Calla, James (2016). "The Unsuccessful Group-treatment of "writer's Block"". Perceptual and Motor Skills. 61 (1): 298. doi:10.2466/pms.1985.61.1.298. S2CID 147453593.
  13. Olsen, Kenneth R. (2016). "Unsuccessful Self-treatment of 'writer's Block': a Review of the Literature". Perceptual and Motor Skills. 59 (1): 158. doi:10.2466/pms.1984.59.1.158. S2CID 144430449.
  14. Carter, Geoffrey Vincent (2007). Rereading and Rewriting Bloc/ks: Teaching Multi-modal Literacies Through an Apprenticeship in Proper Names. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-549-30355-8.
  15. Glasser, Stephen P. (2014). Essentials of Clinical Research. Springer. pp. 415–416. ISBN 978-3-319-05470-4.
  16. Fry, William F.; Waleed A. Salameh (December 1987). Handbook of humor and psychotherapy: advances in the clinical use of humor. Professional Resource Exchange. p. 150. ISBN 978-0-943158-19-8.
  17. Jensen, Erik M. (February 11, 2000). "The Shortest Article in Law Review History". Journal of Legal Education. 50: 156.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.