ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the element of the unholy trinity, about the 'science' of psychology, and more specifically about the psychology of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). CBT has come to dominate the field of psychological therapy, particularly within the NHS in the UK, but also in other sorts of institutions such as prisons and schools. The chapter considers the other two components of the trinity: managerialism and neoliberalism as it was in their interests that CBT should flourish. CBT is not entirely without virtue, and in a sense the problem is not with CBT itself, but the hype that surrounds it and the use it is put to further specific ideological, professional and political agendas. The chapter presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book. Cognitivism, turns its attention to the genesis of the cognitivist conception of the human condition that has come to preside in CBT.
