Special issue in honour of Marcel van den Hout, former Co-Editor of BTEP

Abstract

In 2000 Marcel van den Hout and Arnoud Arntz were appointed as Co-Editors of the Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, succeeding Leo J. Reyna, who co-founded the journal together with Joseph Wolpe, one of the founding fathers of behaviour therapy. Around that time, the journal went through a difficult time. The number of submissions was not very impressive, neither was the journal's impact factor. Nevertheless, among behaviour therapy and experimental psychopathology researchers, the journal was still well known, and some important papers were published in the last decade of the previous century. BTEP needed revitalization, and the new editors opened the first issue of BTEP in 2000 with an editorial statement explaining that the focus would be on experimental psychopathology, as this was the current term for what the founders had called “experimental psychiatry”. Hence, the subtitle “A Journal of Experimental Psychopathology” was added to the journal's masthead. Furthermore, it was stated that BTEP would not only consider studies of behaviour therapy in a strict sense, but also cognitive and biological/neuroscience oriented papers, as well as applied clinical and fundamental nonclinical papers, as long as they helped to increase our psychological understanding of psychopathology, and take an international (i.e., global, and not American or European) orientation. It took some years to bring BTEP back to a level where it belonged, comparable with (and sometimes surpassing) other journals focusing on experimental psychopathology, but for a decade or so, BTEP has had a firm position in the field. The number of submissions increased dramatically, as did the impact factor, and BTEP succeeded in bridging fundamental and clinical experimental work. Marcel van den Hout's contributions both to the revival of BTEP, and to the field of experimental psychopathology cannot be overestimated. In 2012–13 he decided to step back as Co-Editor, and was followed-up by Adam Radomsky. The present Co-Editors are enormously grateful for all the great work Marcel van den Hout did to bring BTEP back to the heart of the field of experimental psychopathology, and decided to organize a special issue in honour of his most impressive work. All authors agreed to keep this issue a secret from Marcel, as we hope to surprise him. This special issue contains manuscripts focusing on issues that have been central to Marcel's work in recent years: the paradoxical effects of repetition on memory confidence in OCD (the more you check, the less certain you become that you adequately checked) and the working memory theory of reducing the vividness and emotional intensity of unpleasant memories. It also contains a provocative essay by Jack Rachman, another founding father of experimental psychopathology, and other papers by just some of those who have been inspired by Marcel van den Hout's most impressive research. By this selection we aim to honour Marcel van den Hout not only for his work as co-editor of BTEP, but also for his important contributions to the field of experimental psychopathology.