Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

[Marion]

Does anyone know of any decent sites or sources of information for critiques of cognitive behavioural therapy? I've had an initial search through the web but haven't come up with all that much beyond basic introductions so if anyone has any info it'd be much appreciated...

[Jazzratt]

What specifically do you need to know about it, I'm undergoing CBT treatment at the moment and the bloke doing it would probably be open to questions about specifics.

[Marion]

Originally posted by [email protected] 27, 2007 12:02 pm
What specifically do you need to know about it, I'm undergoing CBT treatment at the moment and the bloke doing it would probably be open to questions about specifics.
I'm pretty solid on the basics of it all and what it involves, but am looking for any sort of decent critiques. I guess many traditional psychologists could criticise it for its focus on the "here and now" rather than past formative events as in Freudianism (although I suppose the focus on "core beliefs" in CBT could encompass this). Obviously a more political critique would be the extent to which it individualises issues rather than stressing the connection with wider social forces. However, these are very much my own initial thoughts and I don't really know much about psychology at all so any more info I can get would be useful.

[Raúl Duke]

Although I don't know much of how CBT is conducted I could tell you something that contrasts Cognitive-Behavioral school from the Freudian one.

Cognitive-Behavioral, the school itself, is more scientific (positivist) than the Freudian school. The Freudians basically made up stuff and never/rarely tested their hypothesis scientifically. Although you might see some "Freudian" stuff in cognitivism under new labels (for example, cognitive school does hold onto the idea of repressed memories I think.) yet this was because they, unlike their Freudian counterpart, actually went out and tested this stuff.

Although, I can't be exactly sure how "objective" and "scientifically based" CBT is yet its probably much more than psychoanalysis therapy. Also, CBT gets better results than Freudian therapy. It takes more therapy sessions in psychoanalysis therapy than CBT to get the same results.

If you want to look for a more political critique you should look for "critical psychology"; maybe there you might find something. Although both CBT and psychoanalysis "individualizes" issues to some degree...