You're digressing like a republican ...perish the thought. What constitutes thought is a first order concept and requires deliberation. There may be something there thats instant but it isn't up to thought and don't have a problem with any of what the rest of the book may say.
You are passing judgment on a book that describes the cutting edge of talk therapy by legitimate mainstream mental health professionals, and which you didn't even bother to read, yet you are accusing me of digressing like a Republican? You pit your unresearched opinion against proven fact and yet you are accusing me of digressing like a Republican? What cheek. Consider phobias, predicated on a previous experience and the subjective interpretation of that experience. When someone with arachnophobia "automatically" reacts to a spider upon seeing it, you think there was no automatic thought, based on an interpretation of a previous experience subsequently blown out of proportion? One that arises almost instantly upon seeing a spider and thereby giving rise to an unpleasant emotion? Why do you think two people react, either instantly or in the fullness of time, entirely differently to the same stimulus? What do you think a "gut feeling" is based on, other than a series of thoughts, either near instantaneous or otherwise, depending on the delay of the reaction.
Now you are just being difficult. (If you really care to know the answer, then read the book!) And now I trust you'll understand this is where I'll make my exit. Enjoy the rest of the thread.
Hehe, perhaps I am being difficult. The book looks like a real "feel good" read, but would its techniques work to stop an infant from crying? ; )
No no no. Its just that word ...there. The reaction to the spider was an impulse or reaction based on a bad experience but not alot of thought. I'm not questioning anything else to do with the book except that word and its use with instantaneous. Of course I'm not questioning what appears to be pretty much psych 101 stuff.
Okay, I know I said that was it for me on this thread, but I'll make an exception. The mind can process very, very quickly. The "impulse or reaction based on a bad experience" needs to be subjectively interpreted as having been a "bad" experience first. Once this is done, it is stored for quick and ready short-cut reference. That initial interpretation is relived at the press of the right button upon sight of the spider. It becomes rather Pavlovian, but it has a subjective origin. It is said that much of our personality is formed during our early childhood. This is because we initially interpret stimuli in a manner that we seldom question later. Therefore, the same stimulus will generally yield the same response. And that is why, as adults, we often find ourselves enduring variations of our childhood battles. We automatically respond in a manner consistent with our initial interpretation of a similar stimulus without questioning the objective validity of that initial childhood interpretation. Of course, as we mature, we replace some of those interpretations either by conscious thought or otherwise. But we still retain any number of automatic responses that we have learned and relearned based on our initial childhood experiences and our subjective interpretations of those experiences. Some more so than others.