I propose that, given a person who is unhappy about some condition in their life, an immediate change of affect could be brought about by getting the person to explicitly admit to themselves whatever they are afraid is happening or going to happen, especially any culpability they believe they personally hold in relation to it.
Well, I’m narrowing the hypothesis a bit: I’m stating that instead of talking to a math professor for some period of time, I’m guessing that you could cut the process a lot shorter by just getting straight to the damaging admissions. ;-)
Of course, there is also good evidence that simply writing about such things is beneficial, such as the study showing that 2 minutes of writing/day (about a personal trauma) improves your health.
I’m just seeing if we can narrow down to a more precisely-defined variable with greater correlation to positive results. That is, that the specific thing that needs to be included in the writing or talking is the admission of a problem and one’s worst-case fears about it.
I believe this is both widely accepted and true.
See also Robyn Dawes and Robin Hanson on therapy, and Eliezer on Dawes.
Well, I’m narrowing the hypothesis a bit: I’m stating that instead of talking to a math professor for some period of time, I’m guessing that you could cut the process a lot shorter by just getting straight to the damaging admissions. ;-)
Of course, there is also good evidence that simply writing about such things is beneficial, such as the study showing that 2 minutes of writing/day (about a personal trauma) improves your health.
I’m just seeing if we can narrow down to a more precisely-defined variable with greater correlation to positive results. That is, that the specific thing that needs to be included in the writing or talking is the admission of a problem and one’s worst-case fears about it.