Posted by Dinah on June 2, 2003, at 8:52:17
In reply to CBT and metacognition » Larry Hoover, posted by mattdds on June 2, 2003, at 1:55:30
When I first started therapy, my therapist used to tease me, or maybe it wasn't teasing but rather reframing, that I had very nearly reached the Buddhist ideal of detachment in the Buddhist sense of the word. And several other Buddhist ideals as well. I suspect that at the time, he wished to reframe my natural tendencies in a positive light. He told me that if I lived in a Buddhist culture, I would be totally comfortable with my attitudes.
But it was all a false self that was so wonderfully detached. And my panic attacks were a way of my body telling me that. So if you can truly reach the state you were talking about, of reaching the metacognitive mode you were speaking of, perhaps you would feel a great reduction in distress. But if you are only able to achieve that at a rational level, if you only *think* you've reached that state, it is in my own experience an invitation to just a different type of psychopathology. Unless you are able to reach that state in all levels of your being, it really only appears to help. I could never bring the techniques to all levels of my being, and merely split off the less accepting parts from my conscious awareness.
My congratulations to you if you were truly able to embrace those ideals on all levels of your being.
poster:Dinah
thread:230572
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20030529/msgs/230746.html