3. The connection between cognitive therapy, with its emphasis on thought processes, and therapies of emotional release ranging from some aspects of psychoanalysis (including "transference") to such techniques as "primal scream", merits some discussion. There is no doubt that some people have obtained relief from depression from these experiences, both in and out of psychological treatment. Alcoholics Anonymous is replete with reports of such experiences. William James, in Varieties of Religious Experience (1902/1958), makes a great deal of such "second births".

The nature of this sort of process -- which evokes such terms as "release" or "letting go" or "surrender to God" -- may hinge on the sense of "permission" that Ellis makes much of. The person comes to feel free of the musts and oughts that had made the person feel enslaved. There is truly a "release" from this emotional bondage to a particular set of benchmark-state denominators that cause a constant Rotten Mood Ratio. So here, then, is a plausible connection between emotional release and cognitive therapy, though there undoubtedly are other connections as well.

Summary and Conclusions

Self-comparisons Analysis does the following: 1) Presents a theoretical framework which identifies and focuses on the common pathway through which all depression-causing lines of thought must pass. This framework combines and integrates other valid approaches, subsuming all of them as valuable but partial. All of the many variations of depressions that modern psychiatry now recognizes as heterogeneous but related forms of the same illness can be subsumed under the theory except those that have a purely biological origin, if there are such. 2) Sharpens each of the other viewpoints by converting the too-vague notion of "negative thinking" to a precise formulation of a self-comparison and a negative Mood Ratio with two specific parts -- a perceived actual state of affairs, and a hypothetical benchmark state of affairs. This framework opens up a wide variety of novel interventions. 3) Offers a new line of attack upon stubborn depressions by leading the sufferer to make a committed choice to give up depression in order to attain important deeply-held values.

The "actual" state is the state that "you" perceive yourself to be in; a depressive may bias perceptions so as to systematically produce negative comparisons. The benchmark situation may be the state you think you ought to be in, or the state you formerly were in, or the state you expected or hoped to be in, or the state you aspire to achieve, or the state someone else told you you must achieve. This comparison between actual and hypothetical states makes you feel bad if the state in which you think you are in is less positive than the state you compare yourself to. And the bad mood will become a sad mood rather than an angry or determined mood if you also feel helpless to improve your actual state of affairs or to change your benchmark.

The analysis and approach offered here fit with other varieties of cognitive therapy as follows:

1) Beck's original version of Cognitive Therapy has the patient "build self-esteem" and avoid "negative thoughts". But neither "self-esteem" nor "negative thought" is a precise theoretical term. Focusing on one's negative self-comparisons is a clear-cut and systematic method for achieving the goal Beck sets. But there are also other paths to overcoming depression that are part of the overall approach given here.

2) Seligman's "learned optimism" focuses upon ways to overcome learned helplessness. The analytic procedure suggested here includes learning not to feel helpless, but the present approach focuses on the helpless attitude in conjunction with the negative self-comparisons that are the direct cause of the sadness of depression.

3) Ellis teaches people not to "musterbate" -- that is, to free oneself of unnecessary musts and oughts. This tactic helps a depressive adjust his/her benchmark state, and the person's relationship to it, in such fashion that fewer and less-painful negative self-comparisons are made. But as with Beck's and Seligman's therapeutic advice, Ellis's focuses on only one aspect of the depression structure. As a system, it therefore restricts the available options, omitting some other avenues which may be just what a particular person needs.

Heretofore, the choice among therapies had to be made mainly on competing merits. Self-comparisons Analysis provides an integrated framework which directs attention to those aspects of a sufferer's thought which are most amenable to intervention, and it then suggests an intellectual strategy appropriate for those particular therapeutic opportunities. The various therapeutic methods thereby become complements rather than competitors.

next: Good Mood: The New Psychology of Overcoming Depression Introduction