Thanks a lot for this post! It was a very enjoyable read. Coherence Therapy seems really promising to me.
When you compare CT to CBT you write
I note that this is a common complaint that I have heard of CBT: that by defaulting to negative emotions being caused by belief distortions, CBT risks belittling those negative emotions which are actually produced by correct evaluations of the world.
What would be an example of a negative emotion produced by a correct evaluation of the world? Being depressed about how many beings are suffering in this moment? Although this is an accurate belief, it is still mostly unhelpful to be depressed about it all the time. Would CBT and CT come to different conclusions as to what to do about it?
Being depressed about how many beings are suffering in this moment?
That could be one example, though I was thinking more about examples such as Tomas in the text—you can correctly believe in there being nobody in your life who really understands your problems, in which case it’s also valid to want it.
Whether depression is a useful reaction to that situation is another matter, and I’m under the impression that CT can sometimes alter one’s schemas about how to respond to a bad circumstance. E.g. Ted’s case changed his behavior after he made the update that his strategy wasn’t ever going to work. But that doesn’t make the original evaluation of the badness of the circumstances any less correct. (and at least some interpretations of CBT are premised on that evaluation being irrational)
Thanks a lot for this post! It was a very enjoyable read. Coherence Therapy seems really promising to me.
When you compare CT to CBT you write
What would be an example of a negative emotion produced by a correct evaluation of the world? Being depressed about how many beings are suffering in this moment?
Although this is an accurate belief, it is still mostly unhelpful to be depressed about it all the time. Would CBT and CT come to different conclusions as to what to do about it?
That could be one example, though I was thinking more about examples such as Tomas in the text—you can correctly believe in there being nobody in your life who really understands your problems, in which case it’s also valid to want it.
Whether depression is a useful reaction to that situation is another matter, and I’m under the impression that CT can sometimes alter one’s schemas about how to respond to a bad circumstance. E.g. Ted’s case changed his behavior after he made the update that his strategy wasn’t ever going to work. But that doesn’t make the original evaluation of the badness of the circumstances any less correct. (and at least some interpretations of CBT are premised on that evaluation being irrational)