Dr. David Burns

And they used to persuade me all the time. And it would take a day or two after the session, I'd say, ah, that's where they were getting distorted. And then I'd see them the next time. I'd say, I think I figured it out. And then they'd get it. And then they'd feel better. But cognitive therapy and its new inheritance team, CBT, look simple, but they're not. They're very sophisticated.

These are the most challenging forms of psychotherapy ever created.

These are the most challenging forms of psychotherapy ever created.

And they require a certain deep discovery, a certain deep understanding that transforms your life. And I used to and still do. You know, I wake up in the middle of the night with answers to questions I didn't have when I went to sleep.

And they require a certain deep discovery, a certain deep understanding that transforms your life. And I used to and still do. You know, I wake up in the middle of the night with answers to questions I didn't have when I went to sleep.

And often the questions when I was in clinical practice seeing 6, 8, 10, 12 or more people in a single day, I'd have a lot of them that I couldn't figure out how to talk back to their negative thoughts. And then it would occur to me. I mean, effectively, see, the positive thought has to be 100 percent true and it has to drastically reduce your belief in your negative thought.

And often the questions when I was in clinical practice seeing 6, 8, 10, 12 or more people in a single day, I'd have a lot of them that I couldn't figure out how to talk back to their negative thoughts. And then it would occur to me. I mean, effectively, see, the positive thought has to be 100 percent true and it has to drastically reduce your belief in your negative thought.

That's the necessary and sufficient condition for emotional change. The necessary condition is you have to combat your negative thought, like I'm a loser, with a positive thought that's 100% true. A half-truth will never work. But in addition, the positive thought has to totally crush the negative thought and suddenly see that it's garbage. You see your belief and it goes down to 5% or 10% or 0%.

That's the necessary and sufficient condition for emotional change. The necessary condition is you have to combat your negative thought, like I'm a loser, with a positive thought that's 100% true. A half-truth will never work. But in addition, the positive thought has to totally crush the negative thought and suddenly see that it's garbage. You see your belief and it goes down to 5% or 10% or 0%.

And that's the sufficient condition for emotional change. And so... If you don't get a mood boost until a couple days after doing, say, a daily mood log, well, that happened to me every time when I was inventing. Team CBT and refining cognitive therapy. One day was called cognitive therapy. And I had exactly the same experience.

And that's the sufficient condition for emotional change. And so... If you don't get a mood boost until a couple days after doing, say, a daily mood log, well, that happened to me every time when I was inventing. Team CBT and refining cognitive therapy. One day was called cognitive therapy. And I had exactly the same experience.

And then as I got older, it got to where I could figure out the effect of positive responses just like right away after doing it for 40, 50 years or however many years I've been doing it. And so that's my interpretation. It isn't quite what you said, Rhonda, which is that you talked about something kind of wearing off or something like that.

And then as I got older, it got to where I could figure out the effect of positive responses just like right away after doing it for 40, 50 years or however many years I've been doing it. And so that's my interpretation. It isn't quite what you said, Rhonda, which is that you talked about something kind of wearing off or something like that.

Yeah, you get an insight as to why your negative thought is screwed up. And the very moment you have that insight and you can actually see it. So it's as obvious as the fact right now I can see that there's skin on my hands and there's no doubt about that. And the moment you get it with that degree of clarity in that very instant, your feelings will change. And that could very well happen.

Yeah, you get an insight as to why your negative thought is screwed up. And the very moment you have that insight and you can actually see it. So it's as obvious as the fact right now I can see that there's skin on my hands and there's no doubt about that. And the moment you get it with that degree of clarity in that very instant, your feelings will change. And that could very well happen.

A couple of days after you've been working and that just shows you have a brain just like mine, that you have a nice subconscious mind that works overtime for you when you're not thinking about it.

A couple of days after you've been working and that just shows you have a brain just like mine, that you have a nice subconscious mind that works overtime for you when you're not thinking about it.

Yeah, it took us five hours together.

Yeah, it took us five hours together.

You have to buy my book, Intimate Connections, and read the appendix to find out because I can't remember right now. But again, the answer to it is it's the same as what we've been telling people in today's podcast. The problem is not that she isn't good enough. What is her problem, Rhonda?