ABSTRACT
In order to appreciate how cognitive behaviour therapy can be used to help psychotic patients, it is first necessary to understand the generic cognitive model that has informed the development of psychological treatments for emotional disorders. Stated most simply, this model assumes that an individual’s emotional reactions are determined by their perception of events. That is to say, it is not solely the situation per se which determines what a person feels, but rather the way in which the person construes a situation (Beck, 1964; Ellis, 1962). More specifically, this emotional response is said to be mediated by perception of the situation, which in turn is mediated by different levels of cognition.
