Hey there, thanks for joining in :-)
> I wonder if I just created an odd Civil war between the negative thinking side of me and the postive, correct the irrational beliefs side.
Hmm. Can you elaborate on that a little more? I find (and this may or may not be related) that I can end up with opposition between what I 'rationally believe' and what I feel.
So... I can feel really very hurt and sad and angry and confused... Even though 'rationally' I know the person hasn't done anything wrong, and even though I may understand the reasons for their behaviour (and wouldn't wish them to do otherwise given their needs / desires).
So for me the opposition / split is between
thinking
and
feeling
Is this similar to your experience at all... Or is it more a rational / cognitive / thought war between beliefs?
With the monkey thing...
Do you mean that you say things to yourself because they are the 'rational' things to say even though you have trouble uttering them with conviction or true assent?
> My psychologist in college had said that he uses what works.
Yeah. A lot of therapists are into that. I think there is a place for it... It is a pragmatic theory of truth. Something is true because it is useful.
But then they went and found that people suffering from depression tend to have more accurate self evaluations than people who had what has traditionally been considered to be 'healthy self-esteem'. That finding... Seems to require... That 'accuracy' means something like 'correspondance with the way things are in the world'. If we accept their finding... Then it seems that sometimes... False beliefs may be helpful... And true beliefs may be unhelpful.
Personally... I'm rather attached to the truth (whatever that might turn out to be). I'd rather aim for truth than utility of belief. But... I also believe that the truth can be cast in a way... That makes the truth more helpful than a 'convenient' lie... But that is an assumption, yes. And I don't have any more evidence for my belief than they do for theirs.
> Since I do this correcting for negative thinking so well, I suspect he must have used a little CBT or Rational Emotive Therapy.
Maybe. Or maybe you hit upon it yourself. People did manage self-improvement before therapists (TM) were invented ;-)
> I also find it odd that we discussed the root causes of the beliefs only once. We spent one session on that.
I think... I can tell you why you didn't learn much about the root cases of beliefs... Because... Within psychiatry / psychology / councelling... Not very much is known about the root causes of beliefs.
I have studied that. But I have studied it from within philosophy of mind rather than from within psychology.
We could talk about where beliefs come from if you like...
(But it will of course be a theory and so you might want to yell B*ULLSH*T!!! every now and then)
;-)
>I have seen signs in my courses of teachers encouraging us as students to learn about all the different schools.
Sure. But when it comes time to train to practice... When one is practicing under a supervisor or two... One has to do the therapy that one is trained in... And not very many people... Become trained in more than one approach. Of course some people are more open to some of the insights / ideas of other schools than others. But ultimately... One has to do what one is trained in to a very large extent. And in ones training... One might be aware of different schools... But one tends to learn how to practice one in particular.
Otherwise...
It would take forever to train...
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