Hey. I had a bit of a hard time taking abnormal psychology classes too. The hardest thing for me was the attitudes of the students, though, I guess. Though the proffs got to me sometimes too, yeah.

I have a very real aversion to cognitive therapy. Mostly because I've only seen it presented in a blunt and overly simplistic way. Not just by theorists but by clinicians in practice too. I don't have a lot of time for cognitive theories, generally speaking. (I distinguish between cognitive psychology as information processing theories of visual perception and language processing and so on and so forth and cognitive psychology as a therapy approach. While 'cognitive therapy' is labelled so as to get some of the positive connotations of cognitive psychology there really is very little relation between the two).

I really do think... That cognitive therapy... Backs a person into a corner more often than not. Making them worse more often than not. Sigh. I'll end the rant now. (Yes I know that people get better but I do think that sometimes that is IN SPITE OF rather than in virtue of the theory).

With respect to cognitive distortion... There is some evidence to show that people with depression actually have a more ACCURATE self assessment than people without depression who tend to over-estimate themselves and their abilities. This finding has generated a great literature on how it might be adaptive / it might have pragmatic value to be self deluded. lol.

My main issue with cognitive therapy is that you need to endorse one or more of the cognitive distortions or you are being 'resistent' aka a bad client who isn't willing to participate in the therapy process. They attempt to get you to endorse one or more of the cognitive 'distortions' and then typically proceed to... Beat you over the head with them.

If you don't consciously endorse them then the theory goes that you UNCONSCIOUSLY endorse them in the form of preverbal schemas or whatever. Basically... Doesn't matter what you say you simply must endorse them (either consciously or unconsciously) because that is what their theory of emotions REQUIRES YOU TO DO.

The theory of emotions goes that cognitive distortions causes distressing emotions. If you are feeling a distressing emotion (like depression) then you simply must be either consciously or unconsciously endorsing the cognitive distortions on the book. Playing the therapy game requires you to state that you do endorse some of the cognitive distortions. The therapist gets all excited at this point and encourages you to challenge those cognitive 'distortions' head on. That is supposed to be how one is cured.

Repeat after me 500 times 'I am an absolutely wonderful individual'. Say it like you MEAN it. Keep on... Keep on... If that strategy isn't working for you then you simply aren't doing it properly - bad you!

This is a slight caricature but my experience with cognitive therapy is that it is often practiced this way. Change change change. We gotta change the feeling and the way to change the feeling is to change the thinking.

Fortunately that is only ONE theory of emotions. It is a very influential theory in cognitive behaviour therapy (because it justifies or rationalises their techniques) and it is also a very influential theory in some philosophical circles where people have a very rationalist view of emotions and where depression and phobias and the like are thought to be irrational BY DEFINITION (hence if your theory doesn't explain how they are irrational then your theory is defective).

Fortunately there is another theory of emotions that is gaining ground... On this theory it is acknowledged that emotions can occur in the absense of any conscious evaluation / judgement and the evaluations / judgements of emotion (insofar as they deserve to be called that) mostly AREN'T accessable (or changeable) by conscious introspection.

Emotions can be MODULAR responses. Have you seen the Muller Lyer illusion? The lines APPEAR to be of different length. You can measure the lines (reality check) and come to know that the lines are actually of the same length. This does absolutely nothing to prevent their appearing to be of DIFFERENT length, however. There would be something seriously wrong with your visual system if the lines actually APPEARED to be of the same length. The knowledge that they are the same length does nothing to penetrate the illusiory experience because the visual perception is a MODULAR process that is inpenetrable by higher level thought processes (there is an anatomical explanation for this.

Similarly with the emotion system some emotions (depression, phobias etc) are often MODULAR emotional responses. We can see that objectively there is nothing to be depressed about or afraid of but this does absolutely nothing to alleviate ones emotional state. If there is an evaluation of judgement that occurs prior that is often inaccessible to conscious awareness and telling yourself that the evaluation is false simply does nothing to alleviate the emotion in the majority of cases. The emotion is modular like the appearance of the lines being of different length is modular.

If this is so then how is it that people often do endorse the cognitive distortions? Most people are trying to play the therapy game because they really really really really really want to get better. People often confabulate when they don't know why. That is a fairly normal thing to do. The little lists of cognitive distortions cue you in to the confabulations that are required of you. People simply don't have very good access to the real causes of their emotional states, however. Therapists are good at getting people to confabulate in a way that is consistent with their theory, however...

So what is the mechanism of change then if it isn't challenging those thoughts?

One can view endorsing the cognitive distortions as a CONSEQUENCE of feeling the way one feels. A therapist REQUIRES you to justify yourself and in the attempt to provide justification you get yourself into cognitive difficulty too. If only it was as simple as endorsing the distortions confronting them and then being cured! Alas, things are not that simple. The theraputic relationship. The connection the bond the attunement between therapist and client. IMHO that is the mechanism of change. The difficulty I have with cognitive therapy is that the theory often PREVENTS the meaningful bond / connection because the therapy is all about hitting the client over the head with their alledged irrationality.

Is it irrational to jump at a coiled hose? The parts of the brain that respond to that don't have information to discriminate coiled hoses from snakes. They can't do it. Given that... And given the very real danger of being poisoned it makes good evolutionary sense to have false positives rather than false negatives. Not only is jumping at a coiled snake UNDERSTANDABLE it is only when one is forced to justify ones response that one says 'i thought it was a snake'. One didn't think anything at all, of course. In the attempt to get people to justify themselves...

Well... As you can see I had more than a few issues with Abnormal psychology (coming from an institution that was very big on cognitive behaviour therapy).

Sigh.