On differences between mentalistic explanations and private events as causes of behavior

Behavior analysts have frequently criticized psychological explanations of others for being mentalistic, dualistic, circular and meaningless. But what is mentalism, is mentalism always dualistic, and can apparently mentalistic explanations be less mentalistic and circular than we have commonly argued? Are there more similarities between “traditional” and behavior analytic explanations than frequently thought? For example, behavior analysts, too, explain behavior by way of “events inside of us”. In other words, I will try to “normalize the relationship between behavior analytic and more traditional explanations somewhat.