Cognition and Psychotherapy

361 Pages·1985·9.317 MB·English

by  Michael J. Mahoney (auth.), Michael J. Mahoney, Arthur Freeman (eds.)

Cognition and
Psychotherapy
Cognition and
Psychotherapy
Edited by
MICHAEL J. MAHONEY
University of California
Santa Barbara, California
and
ARTHUR FREEMAN
Center for Cognitive Therapy
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Plenum Press • New York and London
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
Cognition and psychotherapy.
Includes bibliographies and index.
I. Cognitive therapy. I. Mahoney, l\lichael j. II. Freeman, Arthur :\\. [DNLl\\: I.
Cognition. 2. Psychotherapy. Wl\\ 420 C6755]
RC489.C63C6 1985 616.89/14 85-3370
ISBN 978-1-4684-7564-7 ISBN 978-1-4684-7562-3 (eBook)
DOl 10.1007/978-1-4684-7562-3
© 1985 Plenum Press, New York
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1985
A Division of Plenum Publishing Corporation
233 Spring Street, New York, N.Y. 10013
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming,
recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher
To Aaron T. Beck
valued friend, colleague, and pioneer
in the cognitive clinical sciences
Contributors
SILVANO ARIETI, Late of New York Medical College and William Alanson
White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and Psychology,
New York, New York.
ALBERT BANDURA, Stanford University, Building 420, Jordan Hall,
Stanford, California
AARON T. BECK, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania,
133 South 36th Street, Room 602, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
JOHN BOWLBY, Tavistock Institute, 120 Belsize Lane, London, England
RALPH M. CROWLEY, Late of William Alanson White Institute of
Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and Psychology, New York, New York
ALBERT ELLIS, Institute for Rational Emotive Therapy, 45 East 65th
Street, New York, New York
JEROME D. FRANK, Department of Psychiatry, The Johns Hopkins
University Medical School, Baltimore, Maryland
VIKTOR E. FRANKL, University of Vienna Medical School, 1
Mariannengasse, Vienna, Austria
ARTHUR FREEMAN, Department of Psychiatry, University of
Pennsylvania, 133 South 36th Street, Room 602, Philadelphia,
PennsyI vania
VITTORIO F. GUIDANO, Center for Cognitive Psychotherapy, Via degli
Scipioni 245, Rome, Italy
vii
viii CONTRIBUTORS
LUIS JOYCE-MoNIZ, Faculty of Psychology, University of Lisbon, Rua
Pinheiro Chagas 17, Lisbon, Portugal
GIANNI LIOTTI, Center for Cognitive Psychotherapy, Via degli Scipioni
245, Rome, Italy
MICHAEL J. MAHONEY, Counseling Psychology, University of California,
Santa Barbara, California
VICTOR E. RAIMY, Clinical Psychologist in private practice, 6770 Hawaii
Kai Dr., Honolulu, Hawaii
MARIO RENDON, Montefiore Hospital and Medical Center, 3412
Bainbridge Avenue, Bronx, New York
BERNARD SHULMAN, Stone Medical Center, 2800 North Sheridan Road,
Chicago, Illinois
Preface
For almost three millennia, philosophy and its more pragmatic
offspring, psychology and the cognitive sciences, have struggled to
understand the complex principles reflected in the patterned opera
tions of the human mind. What is knowledge? How does it relate to
what we feel and do? What are the fundamental processes underlying
attention, perception, intention, learning, memory, and conscious
ness? How are thought, feeling, and action related, and what are the
practical implications of our current knowledge for the everyday
priorities of parenting, education, and counseling? Such meaningful
and fascinating questions lie at the heart of contemporary attempts
to build a stronger working alliance among the fields of epistemology
(theories of knowledge), the cognitive sciences, and psychotherapy.
The proliferation and pervasiveness of what some have called
"cognitivism" throughout all quarters of modern psychology repre
sent a phenomenon of paradigmatic proportions. The (re-)emergence
of cognitive concepts and perspectives-whether portrayed as revo
lutionary (reactive) or evolutionary (developmental) in nature-marks
what may well be the single most formative theme in late twentieth
century psychology. Skeptics of the cognitive movement, if it may be
so called, can readily note the necessary limits and liabilities of naive
forms of metaphysics and mentalism. The history of human ideas is
writ large in the polarities of "in here" and "out there"-from Plato,
Pythagoras, and Kant to Locke, Bacon, and Watson. What appears
to be different among modern cognitive proponents, however, is a
willingness to transcend the polarity levels of analysis in favor of
more comprehensive and complex models of human adaptation and
development. Mind and body, not to mention self and environment,
are no longer viewed as reciprocals in the symbolic functions de
scribing human experience. We are clearly both the subject and object
of inquiry, the changer and the changed, and the only thinking, feel
ing, acting organism known to be capable of self-consciousness.
There are, to be sure, a wide range of theories and models that
ix
x PREFACE
attempt to order the scientific and clinical literatures bearing on the
nature of the cognitive processes that lie at the heart of human neuro
functions. There is some convergence worthy of attention, and there
are nontrivial differences that also warrant consideration. In this
volume we have asked recognized specialists from the major ideo
logical schools to address the role and conceptualization of cognitive
processes in psychotherapy. The opening chapter by Mahoney offers
a metatheoretical survey of convergent themes-approximations to
ward principles-noted across approaches to psychotherapy.
The quest for basic principles and effective ingredients in psy
chotherapy is pursued even further by Jerome D. Frank in Chapter
2. The roles of relationship, rationale, and ritual in effective coun
seling are emphasized by Frank, as is the elusive dimension of hope
and morale. This interest in the person's confidence and perceived
capacities is then more thoroughly analyzed in Albert Bandura's in
fluential theory of self-efficacy (Chapter 3). His theory links the sense
of self-efficacy with the performance, persistence, and resilience of
coping behaviors. Bandura endorses a social learning theory inter
pretation of the sources of information about personal efficacy, namely,
self-observation, vicarious learning, persuasion, and physiological cues.
Chapters 4 and 5 are by Luis Joyce-Moniz of Portugal and Vittorio
F. Guidano and Gianni Liotti of Rome, respectively. All three rep
resent structuralist and constructivist cognitive theorists. Joyce-Moniz
calls for more attention to the unique personal epistemology of each
client and the need for an integrative model of cognitive structures
and processes that transcend techniques. Guidano and Liotti share
some fascinating conjectures and demonstrations of a constructivist,
process-oriented model of personal realities and their formation.
Chapter 5 offers an overview of their approach, which combines evo
lutionary epistemology with attachment theory in tracing personal
trajectories of affective development, disorder, and treatment.
This theme is itself expanded in Chapter 6 by John Bowlby, the
author of attachment theory. There is growing evidence that certain
patterns of early problems in attachment appear to leave an enduring
vulnerability to emotional distress and dysfunction. As Bowlby aptly
notes, however, we have been relatively neglectful of research on
developmental psychopathology. Such research could refine our un
derstanding of the developmental origins and psychological functions
of a syndrome and thereby enhance our capacity not only to under
stand better our clients, but also to guide them through develop
mental struggles.
In Chapter 7 Victor Raimy offers a valuable contribution on the
PREFACE xi
role of misconceptions or misunderstandings in the generation and
maintenance of personal problems. Dr. Raimy calls for a cognitive
behavioral eclecticism, noting that "finding and changing faulty be
liefs that interfere with adjustment is a highly specific and concrete
therapeutic activity, even though it may be accomplished in many
different ways." Cognition is seen in a somewhat different light by
the late Silvano Arieti in his discussion of "Cognition in Psycho
analysis" (Chapter 8). While offering his own valuable conjectures on
cognitive organization, Arieti laments the fact that "cognition is or
has been, up to now, the Cinderella of psychoanalysis in psychiatry.
No other field of the psyche has been so consistently neglected by
clinicians and theoreticians alike." In Chapter 9 Bernard Shulman
aptly notes that Alfred Adler's theory of individual psychology rep
resented one of the earliest statements of a cognitive constructivist
view. The development of a life-style or schema through formative
social interactions remains a core assumption of several modern cog
nitive perspectives.
Viktor Frankl, the founder of logo therapy , is the author of Chapter
to, which traces his early theoretica1 development and interactions
with Freud and Adler. Frankl offers a stimulating distinction between
paradoxical intention and symptom prescription and concludes with
some provocative thoughts on the roles of detachment and self-tran
scendance in psychological development. Somewhat parallel themes
are addressed in Chapter 11 by Mario Rendon. Rendon discusses
Karen Horney's role in the early appreciation and analysis of self
relationships that are, of course, developed, maintained, and modified
in the context of human relationships. Horney and Frankl both em
phasize self-realization as a motivational component in the struggle
to be freed of neurotic preoccupations.
The last three chapters were reserved for three of the most influ
ential pioneering figures in the cognitive clinical sciences-Harry
Stack Sullivan, Albert Ellis, and Aaron T. Beck. The late Ralph Crow
ley documents the cognitive emphases of Sullivan's interpersonal
theory and credits Sullivan with recognizing the inseparability of the
cognitive, conative, and affective elements of experience. These ele
ments are more explicitly addressed by Dr. Ellis in his expansion of
a foundational aspect of rational-emotive therapy, namely, relation
ships among the "ABCs" of experience-(A) activating events, (B)
beliefs, and (C) consequences. Ellis joins other contemporary experts
who view these elements as complexly interactive.
In the final chapter, Beck, to whom this volume is affectionately
dedicated, offers a survey of integrative convergences among pro-