ABSTRACT
The events of the future cannot be inferred from those of the present. The belief in the causal nexus is a superstition.
—Wittgenstein (T, #5.1361).
Over the years, SFBT has frequently been criticized for how the approach “deals with emotions” and even, sometimes, for “ignoring the emotions.” Somehow or other, some therapists got the idea that the apparent focusing on behavior means that SFBT “ignores emotions” or “excludes emotions.” This criticism is, of course, based on the traditional ways both philosophy and psychology-and thus psycho-therapy-have viewed “emotions and feelings.” Traditionally, emotions and feelings were seen by philosophy and psychology as inner states or forces that are depicted as intimately, and frequently causally, related to the kinds of problems therapists treat. This individualistic and linear, causal point of view privileges the subjective over the public and/or social as the starting place for our understanding of emotions and feelings. Thus, the individual is seen to have a special, infallible knowledge of his or her own inner states and forces. This view is fundamental to traditional psychology and psychiatry.
