A woman convinced that she emits an unpleasant smell is persuaded to travel around on public transport with a portion of fish and chips to monitor how people react to her. This will allow her to assess the “evidence”: she will realise that there is a difference between times when she is the bearer of a strong smell and when she is not, and this will help her to “correct” her beliefs.
Welcome to the world of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), which has enjoyed a massive expansion over the past 10 years, not only in Britain but in much of the west. Where once a diversity of therapies flourished, today CBT is progressively replacing the older treatments. It’s cheap, it shows results on paper and it chimes with a commonsense, problem-solving view of the world.
Developed by the American psychiatrist Aaron Beck in the 1960s, CBT was based on the idea that our emotions and moods were influenced by our patterns of thinking. The aim of therapy was to “correct” these processes, “to think and act more realistically.” It would allow the patient to avoid the misconstruction of reality that had led to their problems.
