alexandra_k

Your points are thoughtful. I agree that therapy, groups, friends, self-help material can be very similar processes. And, I suppose, one could make too much of the source of ideas about the source of information making a change. Several methods of changing will surely work but some methods may be more confortable to some patients and other methods are preferred by therapists...but until we get video in both directions I think the therapist is better informed about what the patient is thinking, feeling, and doing to change...and getting self-help out of a book has the limitation of telling the book writer what the person with a problem is thinking, feeling, wanting, doing, etc, You make a good point but there are other aspects, e.g. the author can give you lots of information while a quiet therapist and group can give you small amounts of information. All the methods may help some, hopefully.

I like your idea of self-acceptance, although we may go about it in different ways. I talk about my view in Chapter 14 (see the last topic about Determinism). What do you think of that idea? 5000 years Buddhist had an idea something like this but he didn't think in scientific terms.

Thanks for your ideas and comments.

drclay