ABSTRACT
As Brewin pointed out that cognitive-behaviour therapy involves an extremely heterogeneous set of techniques and procedures. However, he argued persuasively that some theoretical coherence can be imposed on cognitive-behaviour therapy by drawing a distinction between interventions designed to modify conscious beliefs and representations and those designed to modify unconscious representations in memory. According to the four-factor theory, patients with generalised anxiety disorder have a wide range of interpretive biases closely resembling in trait anxiety. It follows that successful cognitive therapy for generalised anxiety disorder needs to be more extensive than in the case of the more specific anxiety disorders. The clinical theory attempts to identify the major uncontrollable symptoms associated with different anxiety disorders, and to place them into a theoretical context. It has only five anxiety disorders: specific phobia; panic disorder without agoraphobia; obsessive-compulsive disorder; social phobia; and generalised anxiety disorder. For obsessive-compulsive disorder patients, perceived uncontrollability of symptoms applies primarily to their own obsessional thoughts.
