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In memoriamFor most of the psychologists of our generation Michael Mahoney was a living legend.We had to wait till 1987 to know the men behind the legend.Since then we both had the luck of collaborating closely with Michael, and learn to appreciate that the men and the legend were two sides of the same golden coin.Michael Mahoney was probably one of the first psychologists, educated in the behavioral tradition, that dare to challenge the mainstream establishment and the «First Commandment of right-wing behaviorism: "Thou shall not infer» (p.24, Cognition and Behavior Modification).In fact, in early 70s, Michael Mahoney was a young and energetic graduate student at Stanford University working under the supervision of the men who is probably the most well known living legend in psychology -Albert Bandura.With Bandura, Michael Mahoney was learning the first instruments of methodological behaviorism but, at the same time, he was growing aware of the limits of not considering the individual as a complex knowing system.We believe that Bandura was instrumental in modeling in Mike the three attitudes that were going to become central landmarks in his career: the openness of mind; the constant search for change; a warm and caring human being.The life and work of Mike have been so rich and enriching that it would take a full book to acknowledge the scope of his work.For the sake of brevity we'll focus on what we believe were the three central qualities of Michael Mahoney's work: Openness of mind; mover and shaker; warm and caring human being. Openness of mindHis openness of mind is well illustrated, first of all, by his courage to open behaviorism to both the cognitive revolution and the power of self-regulating systems.Overall, he created the foundations of what came to be referred as the «thinking behaviorist».He was still a «young kid in the block» when he published, in 1974, the two books that were going to turn him into a living legend for a new generation of psychologists.«Cognition and Behavior Modification» and «Behavioral Self-Control» were the «new bibles» of the emerging cognitivism.But Mahoney always refused the Int J Clin Health Psychol, Vol. 6, Nº 3 Óscar, returned to Europe, and Paulo stayed in California a couple of years more, before returning to the old continent.Since then, our paths crossed several times in conferences, meetings, emails, or just in a word carried by a mutual friend.Now, we're left with cheerful memories of multiple encounters and an incredible sense of privilege of being able to have met the man behind the legend.
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