Posted by Squiggles on August 11, 2007, at 8:45:16
In reply to Re: A Cognitive problem? (nm), posted by Squiggles on August 10, 2007, at 8:38:03
JBL,
Sorry for mucking up the post; i meant to reply to yours a couple of days ago and hesitated at my mistake; i think that 3x is the limit.
I wanted to say that I looked up "cognitive dissonance". I recall the concept when i was in school-- part of the Gestalt movement in psychology. Here is an interesting general link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance
I think conflicting theories about the world is a human frailty, and many areas of human affairs run into it -- politics, legal, personal, social and economic. When emotions are involved in decision-making, they may actually provide a distortion role in assessing a situation where not all the evidence is available. Like Hume said, "reason is the slave of the passions".
So, any therapist taking on a case, is going to have be not only a smart cookie analyzing motives, but also knowledgeable in the contextual picture of a person's situation-- sort of like detective work with the facts all at his disposal.
As for the patient, he is far more likely to fall prey to emotionally driven interpretations when in a weak state. Agencies who have done brainwashing know this very well, when they first "break the person down". A person can then believe anything, as in "1984" -- "how many fingers do you see?".
So, conflicting theories is a knowledge problem, and in the case of people in emotional stress, becomes an even greater problem. That's why i think that cognitive therapy might be very helpful to get out of disturbing illusions.
Squiggles
poster:Squiggles
thread:774880
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070808/msgs/775463.html