"A Clockwork Orange" writer, Anthony Burgess, was not a big fan of Watson and Skinner's behaviorism ideas. In fact, he called Skinner's book, Beyond Freedom and Dignity, "one of the most dangerous books ever written." So does Alex's conditioning follow Skinner's "operant conditioning?" In my opinion, yes! The reward and consequence practice is strongly used in the movie, as Alex is punished every time he wants to be violent or engage in sexual acts. This video shows one of Skinner's experiments that conditions with reward instead of punishment, but still is similar to Alex's conditioning http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_ctJqjlrHA Because Burgess did not agree with the ideas behind behaviorism, Alex's "mind" overcomes his conditioning in the end, thus going against the principles of Skinner and Watson. So, the movie is basically criticizing behavioral psychology and the results are a disturbing and intriguing look into the human psyche.
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