Wessler’s Cognitive Assessment Therapy
The cognitive assessment therapy developed by Wessler is part of cognitive therapy. Although it has some characteristics in common with traditional cognitive therapies, it offers a different approach to motivation. It assumes that behavior is determined by emotions rather than patterns.
Its objective is the specific treatment of certain personality disorders. These are thus seen as axes rather than categories. The assessment is then based on Millon’s multiaxial clinical inventory. It is also based on a questionnaire concerning the patient’s life course.
It is a therapy based on the theories of social learning and interpersonal therapy. In addition, the techniques include elements of client-centered therapy, Gestalt therapy, and Ellis’ Rational Emotional Behavioral Therapy (TREC).
Finally, it also includes certain elements of constructivism. The basic assumption is that human beings are governed by “rules of personal life”.
These rules can be both implicit and explicit. They constitute the specific version of a person and his relation between the cognitive and the social as well as his moral and ethical principles.
Some of these rules are descriptive statements that a person considers to be true in reality. For example, it could be the idea that if you are kind to others, they will return it to you.
Other rules are prescriptive. That is, they are based on moral principles and social values. To keep the same example, it is the principle of treating others with kindness because it is morally correct.
Means of cognitive assessment therapy
For Wessler’s cognitive assessment therapy, it is considered that emotion influences cognition. This idea is based on Beck’s cognitive model (although this model was not fully developed by Beck).
The therapeutic relationship is also an extremely important element. It must be warm, welcoming and allow relevant confidences about the patient.
For example, if a student thinks he is stupid when he knows he always has great grades, he is harboring familiar feelings of shame and anxiety. We thus see how emotion appropriates the way of thinking, and therefore cognition.
On the other hand, we can find the “security search maneuvers”. They are based on certain actions that the person performs. They produce certain emotional states which generate a feeling of security in the person.
Some of these maneuvers are completely behavioral. For example, doing a task the person is clearly competent at and then consciously failing in order to feel ashamed and depressed.
Emotional states associated with supporting cognitions and safety-seeking maneuvers are called “typical personal emotions”. These are feelings that a person is used to having and which, when felt, help to strengthen a person’s sense of identity.
People are generally motivated to seek out these typical personal emotions. And this, even if they are negative. It is a kind of attachment to familiar suffering. Take the example of a businessman who was humiliated as a child. In adulthood, he will try, through his behavior, to relive this humiliation.
Emotions in Wessler’s Cognitive Assessment Therapy
Wessler’s Cognitive Assessment Therapy pays special attention to two emotions: shame and self-pity. Shame is linked to inadequacy or personal shortcomings. For its part, self-pity appears when a person considers himself to be a victim.
These are two emotions that a person can sometimes use to justify complacent attempts to soothe and comfort their feelings. This is for example the case of excessive food consumption, compulsive shopping, alcohol consumption, etc.
The way to work with these emotions is, first of all, to give patients information about this nature. Then encourage them to take responsibility for their decisions and actions.
It is necessary to reformulate the self-concept of passive victim of others in order to develop more appropriate action plans. In this sense, patients are encouraged to act on their own behalf. And this, in a way that satisfies their conscious personal rules of life.
Finally, by also emphasizing ethical self-confidence, cognitive assessment therapy weakens certain other personality disorders. For example: narcissistic or antisocial disorders.
In short …
Cognitive Evaluative Therapy ends when patients find ways to be more independent in the face of disruptive emotions. For this, self-instruction, self-encouragement and appeasement procedures are used. These are techniques very similar to those used in conventional cognitive therapy.
Our thoughts Find out about cognitive therapy for personality disorders, how it works and what its results are.
