Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
recognition of emotions, meta-cognitive shortages, or conceptual and language deficiencies
(Liotti 2001). Moreover there is a particular psychopathological modality specifically tied
to the interactions mediated by the motivational system of attachment. This modality in
particular is referred to the disorganized attachment with a representation of oneself with
the other one that is dissociated, changing, and emotionally strong (Liotti 1999).
According to Beck (1976), the therapeutic intervention is relieving the psychological disease
by means of the correction of wrong beliefs. The standard cognitive therapy (CT) inter-
vention looks for the automatic thoughts and the underlying schemes to perform a critical
analysis also by means of alternative thoughts. Patients' tasks are tied to the systematic self-
observation technique with an introspective attitude aimed at reaching insight. The patient is
taught to register in sequence the principal emotions in a problematic situation; the situation
characteristics; and the thoughts and images that preceded, accompanied, and followed the
implied emotion. The therapist cooperates with his or her patient at correcting the informa-
tion processing style. To reach this aim, it is often necessary to help the patient to recognize
his or her principal emotions by explaining, for example, which are the somatic correlates of
some basic emotions or the tendency to act tied to some emotions (Beck et al. 1985).
Ellis (1962) also maintains that the therapeutic intervention has to detect the cognitive
errors (irrational ideas) that cause the emotional disturbance. The correction, substitution,
or elimination of such dysfunctional beliefs allow the therapists to “heal” the patient. The
patient is invited to register events, beliefs, and consequences by analyzing irrational beliefs
by means of the ABC (Activating event, Belief, and Consequences) technique. Therapy is
a research in progress that is focused on thought patterns in which the therapist plays the
role of an active and directive supervisor.
In the approaches of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), the stress on the possibility of
“guiding,” “instructing,” and “educating” the patient is particularly pronounced. For this
reason Ellis also (2003) stated that the future of REBT and more generally of CBTs is tied
to formal education. According to these approaches, the therapist knows which are the
thoughts and convictions functional to the patient and therefore he affords from outside of
the solution to his or her problem. The treatment is aimed at reducing the symptomatology
and augmenting the strategies by means of which the patient can become more able to face
the problem situations.
In contrast, the cognitive-constructivist approaches maintain that each person-system
evolves according to its own rules that guarantee continuity, coherence, and uniqueness
toward progressively more complex levels of organization and functioning. Therefore, the
equilibrium of the system is not considered to be stable, univocal, and determined all
at once; rather, it is considered to be dynamic, changing, and variable according to the
numerous variables influencing the system at each particular time (Maturana and Varela
1980, 1987; Guidano 1987). A decompensation occurs in the following cases:
• These perturbing variables determine an alteration of the existing equilibrium that
exceeds the system's capacity to return to normality by means of reorganization.
• Experiences and events generate turbulences and emotional luctuations that go
beyond the endurance threshold of the system.
• Reorganization cannot be held within a tolerance threshold and exceeding it ren-
ders the experience of being in that reality no more comprehensible and checkable.
The cognitive systems that present more decompensation risk are those characterized
by relaxation or rigidity, whereas the more flexible systems, presenting a wider range of
