In part 1, we looked at a structure of understanding the human condition, so that we could know the domain in which psychotherapy works. We showed that psychotherapy concerns itself primarily with how the soul/mind and spirit components interact. Now, there are various different approaches to psychotherapy, which could be classified in terms of which component is the primary focus of attention, with incorporation of the other components in a secondary way. Therefore, some psychotherapies focus primarily on relationship dynamics, others focus on thoughts and/or actions, and others focus primarily on emotions.
A common theme in many psychotherapies is that emotions are believed to be the problem area, particularly what are called negative emotions and anger. This is based on an older paradigm that divides the mind into a “logical brain” and an “emotional brain,” with the presumption that the emotional brain is weaker and less desirable than the logical brain. Therefore, many psychotherapies are designed to minimize or control the negative emotions and/or anger. For example, there is a popular form of psychotherapy, called CBT, which stands for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. Cognitive represents thoughts, and behaviour represents actions. From the cognitive perspective, the theory of CBT is that thoughts affect emotions. Therefore, it is believed that negative or irrational thoughts lead to negative emotions. If there are too many negative and irrational thoughts, then the person will experience too many negative emotions, which could lead further to overwhelming anger, depression, anxiety, problematic substance abuse, relationship problems, etc.
The goal of CBT is to help a person understand what negative and irrational thoughts are, so that they can learn to make their thoughts positive and rational. The idea is that if the person trains themselves to be positive and rational, it will reduce the amount of negative emotions experienced, and in turn lead to less anger, resolution of depression, anxiety, less use of substances, and better relationships. The CBT approach is one that people can understand. The treatment of CBT has been studied in academic institutions and has been found to relieve depression and anxiety, and so CBT is considered to be evidence-based medical treatment. CBT is arguably the most popular psychotherapy at present. Many practitioners are trained to provide CBT, and there are many self-help books and internet-based programs along the basis of CBT.
Although I agree with many aspects of CBT, I have a few concerns about the approach and find it may be limiting in some ways. First of all, if a person is learning to be positive and rational, it sounds like a good idea and there is generally no problem with this goal. However, there seems to be a limit to how much success a person will have in achieving the ability to be positive and rational. Some people will be better than others in achieving this goal. And during particularly stressful times, a person may find it difficult to be positive and rational, and so what will he or she be left with? In this sense the approach is limited in effectiveness.
Secondly, it seems to me that an approach that is designed to control emotion ends up with a life in which emotion has the control, that is, our life becomes about emotion. CBT attempts to minimize and control negative emotion by the same process as a person who uses alcohol or a substance when he or she feels anxious or stressed. With the same intent to feel less overwhelmed by emotion as a person who may use alcohol to achieve, the goal of CBT is to feel less overwhelmed by emotion by learning to think positively. Using CBT rather than the use of alcohol or substances to reduce anxiety or stress is a much “cleaner” method, with fewer side effects; however, the result is that the person makes his or her life be about controlling emotion. Therefore, the end result is that controlling emotion becomes what that person’s life is about, and there are consequences to this way of living life.
Another popular method to reduce or control emotion is the use of meditation techniques. Yes, meditation can be a helpful way to reduce emotion, however, a person’s life once again becomes about controlling emotion and therefore emotion ends up having the control. The reason why emotion has the control is that emotions are like a sensory organ that gives us information about relationships, i.e. hostile or friendly. If we were to install a smoke detector to detect smoke, but then make our life be about the sound the alarm makes as the problem rather than the fire that the smoke detector is detecting, then there would be consequences to this way of living. Emotion, just like a smoke detector, is only doing what it is designed to do.
I would rather find a way to incorporate emotion, both positive and negative, as part of the life experience, making life be about life, rather than making life be about emotion. I believe we need to accept emotion as part of life. The CBT and meditation camps would claim to accept emotion as well, and yet the work of CBT and meditation is nonetheless about minimizing and controlling negative emotion. As I previously stated, the goal to control emotion is based on an older paradigm that believes the so-called emotional brain is weaker and less desirable. There is something about emotion we must accept, both positive and negative. People generally do not have a problem with experiencing positive emotion, unless the effects are over the top, and so people generally do not come for help because they believe they are too happy. Negative emotions, on the other hand, are a different matter. Because people are uncomfortable with negative emotions, the negative emotions tend to get more attention in terms of therapy.
Modern neuroscience is discovering the role of emotion in the limbic system of the brain, and the interconnections of the limbic system with higher order cortical regions. The paradigm of understanding the human brain is shifting. As opposed to dividing the mind into a “logical brain” and an “emotional brain,” a new paradigm suggests unification into a rational brain that requires and integrates emotions with intellect and logic. Emotions are found to play a prominent role in a person’s ability to make executive decisions and to think rationally. Many of the modern psychotherapies are built on the model that suggests that emotions somehow represent something inferior or something we no longer require because modern life is different than the needs of people thousands or tens of thousands of years ago. However, the paradigm shift looks differently at the role of emotion, in that emotion is considered a strength, having a significant role to complete the rational mind, rather than as a weakness, working to compete against the rational mind.
In part 3, we will look at the rationale and process of CMT psychotherapy.