I enjoyed reading this essay regarding behaviorism. Behaviorism is one of my favorite fields within the realm of psychology, and I have studied it over many semesters. I liked the example you gave for this theoretical perspective. I do agree that positive punishment was used here. Even though both Nietzsche and Breuer found this tactic to be not useful in getting to the root of Breuer's suffering, it is a great example of behaviorism. I would say that this is an example of a continuous schedule however. With continuous schedules, every time he has those thoughts, he gives himself the punishment. It would be considered variable-interval if he randomly chose every X amount of thoughts (maybe 3, then 4, then 3), before giving himself
the punishment. I also think that while the antecedent is anywhere Breuer is at the time (Vienna of course for this), behavior is thoughts/images of Bertha, and the consequence is the 'No!', or pinching. This would therefore make the behavior less likely to occur in the future. I agree, it did not prove very successful in reducing the tormenting thoughts Breuer had. Great post!