Cognitive Defusion: What It Is And How It Is Used In Therapy
The concept of cognitive defusion comes from the origins of classical cognitive theories where the emphasis of the therapeutic process was solely on the mental processes of the subject, removing other aspects from relevance, such as innate responses to certain stimuli.
It is a technique used with the intention of modifying a patient’s negative thoughts, but not by replacing them with more adaptive ones.
In this article we will review what this technique consists of, as well as some practical exercises from its theories.
Through cognitive defusion, the aim is for the subject to begin to see their thoughts as what they really are, thoughts, and not as irrefutable facts of reality. This way the negative and intrusive thoughts that the individual may be presenting would tend to lose their weight specific in terms of the discomfort they generate.
According to this idea, it is not necessary for the person to change their thinking, the really determining factor for them to stop suffering from it is that they understand that the fact of thinking in a certain way does not significantly influence their reality, as long as it does not lead to that thought into action.
Unlike cognitive-behavioral techniques, which focus on the individual being able to replace negative thoughts with more adaptive ones through the process of maieutics, cognitive defusion techniques are designed to maintain the same thoughts in the subject, They are only responsible for undo the fusion that exists between these thoughts and the symptoms presented by the patient During this process the person should begin to see their unwanted thoughts as inconsequential in their life.
Having made it clear that the process of cognitive defusion attempts to make the subject get rid of the weight generated by the negative thoughts they present, it is important to know how the fusion between the subject and the unwanted thought originates.
Theoretically, these kinds of thoughts come from unconscious aspects, fed by the person’s education That is, if someone has been educated in a certain way, it is normal that during that process they have been told what is correct and what is not.
So, when the person is fully aware that there is good and bad, right and wrong, thoughts of opposition to the norm begin to operate in their mind.
This phenomenon is completely natural in all of us; it will only be a problem when these thoughts represent limitations for the person in significant areas of their life. Thus, cognitive diffusion methods seek make the person understand the naturalness of their thoughts
Cognitive defusion techniques
Let’s now look at some tools that can be useful when applying this theory.
1. State our thoughts
When we are having an intrusive thought that disturbs us, we proceed to place a statement in the following way; We place the thought at the end of the following phrase “I am not” or “I am”, all depending on what the thought is.
For example, if we are thinking about harming an animal or a person, we must simply accommodate that thought as “I am not an aggressive person, and I don’t have to hurt anyone.”
This technique consists of continuously repeating a word or phrase that comes to mind when we are having negative thoughts, in such a way that after a while of repetition the word that is being said loses its meaning Then we must do the same with the thought that bothers us, until we remove its meaning, and in such a way it is no longer a thought from which we try to escape, but we will be able to face it by constantly repeating it.
These exercises are very useful to separate our reality from those intrusive thoughts that can be really annoying, and if we make them a habit, it is very likely that the annoying thoughts will disappear over time.
