ABSTRACT
Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) suggests that there is continuity between 'normal' emotional reactions to life events and excessive or extreme emotional reactions found in psychopathology. Weishaar and Beck explain: The cognitive content of syndromes has the same theme as found in 'normal' experience, but cognitive distortions are extreme and, consequently, so are affect and behaviour. Normal and exaggerated emotional reactions to events characterized, respectively, by what Beck et al. call 'mature' and 'primitive' thinking. For example, a mature response to being disliked might be that 'you can't please everyone' whereas a primitive response might conclude that 'thoroughly unlikeable'. Explaining to clients this continuum of emotional reactions to life events helps to remove some of the stigma from psychological distress and thereby normalizes it. This normalizing process helps clients to see that they are not 'weirdos' or 'uniquely abnormal' for experiencing episodes of extreme emotional distress.
