I think the bigger difference between CBT and psychoanalysis is something like, CBT: “Your feelings are the residue of your thoughts, many of which are totally wrong and should be countered by your therapist and you because human brains are horribly biased.” vs, Psychoanalysis: “Your feelings are a true reflection of what an awful, corrupt, contemptible, morally bankrupt human being you are. As your therapist, I will agree with and validate anything you believe about yourself since anything you report about yourself must be true by definition.”
CBT still works with specific past instances of your emotions to chart feelings into thoughts. It’s good to do that so you can see clearly that thoughts always proceeded your feelings about a matter.… and also to see what the content of the thoughts are if they are, sneaky, “automatic” thoughts.
For example, “Jill made me sad.” might be examined and reframed as “My automatic thought that hearing I was wrong about what day the garbage was picked up made me think: I’m wrong, therefore, I’m stupid, therefore, I’m worthless, therefore I’m sad. Those were all my highly-optimized and compressed thoughts which executed so fast… in such well-worn pathways… that I didn’t even notice them. So my thoughts about that made me feel sad, not Jill.”
I think the bigger difference between CBT and psychoanalysis is something like, CBT: “Your feelings are the residue of your thoughts, many of which are totally wrong and should be countered by your therapist and you because human brains are horribly biased.” vs, Psychoanalysis: “Your feelings are a true reflection of what an awful, corrupt, contemptible, morally bankrupt human being you are. As your therapist, I will agree with and validate anything you believe about yourself since anything you report about yourself must be true by definition.”
CBT still works with specific past instances of your emotions to chart feelings into thoughts. It’s good to do that so you can see clearly that thoughts always proceeded your feelings about a matter.… and also to see what the content of the thoughts are if they are, sneaky, “automatic” thoughts.
For example, “Jill made me sad.” might be examined and reframed as “My automatic thought that hearing I was wrong about what day the garbage was picked up made me think: I’m wrong, therefore, I’m stupid, therefore, I’m worthless, therefore I’m sad. Those were all my highly-optimized and compressed thoughts which executed so fast… in such well-worn pathways… that I didn’t even notice them. So my thoughts about that made me feel sad, not Jill.”