ABSTRACT
The original cognitive model has been sometimes misunderstood as claiming that the content of negative thoughts that caused negative emotions and psychological problems. It became increasingly clear however that most people have negative thoughts but did not pay much attention to them and thus were able to dismiss them relatively easily. The chapter cites evidence that shows that most people have obsessional thoughts at times but that OCD sufferers seem to pay more attention to these thoughts so that such thoughts have more effect on them. The chapter discusses how clients with psychological problems seem to ‘lock on’ to their problems. Beck often applied the psychoanalytic concept of ‘fixation’ in this area. The implications for therapy of these factors are discussed and methods for working on such biases are described in the second part of the book.
