Cognitive defusion: what is it and how is it used in therapy?

This concept is part of the basic techniques used for decades in psychology.

The concept of cognitive defusion comes from the origins of classical cognitive theories, where the emphasis of the therapeutic process was solely on the subject's mental processes.where the emphasis of the therapeutic process was only on the mental processes of the subject, taking away the relevance of other aspects, such as innate responses to certain stimuli.

It is a technique used with the intention of modifying a patient's negative thoughts, but not by replacing them with more adaptive ones.

In this article we will review what this technique consists of, as well as some practical exercises derived from its theories.

What is sought in cognitive defusion?

By means of cognitive defusion, we try to make the subject begin to see his thoughts as what they really are, thoughts, and not as irrefutable facts of reality. In this way the negative and intrusive thoughts that the individual may be presenting would tend to lose their specific weight in terms of the discomfort they generate. specific weight in terms of the discomfort they generate.

According to this idea, it is not necessary for the person to change his thoughts; what is really decisive for him to stop suffering from them is that he understands that the fact of thinking in a certain way does not significantly influence his reality, as long as he does not put that thought into action.

Unlike cognitive-behavioral techniques, which focus on the individual's ability to replace negative thoughts with more adaptive ones through the process of maieutics, cognitive defusion techniques are designed to maintain the same thoughts in the subject. undo the fusion that exists between those thoughts and the symptomatology presented by the patient.. During this process the person should come to see their unwanted thoughts as unimportant in their life.

How is the fusion with negative thoughts?

Having made it clear that the process of cognitive defusion tries to make the subject detach from the weight generated by the negative thoughts he/she presents, it is important to know how the fusion between the subject and the unwanted thought originates.

Theoretically, this kind of thoughts come from unconscious aspects, nurtured by the person's upbringing.. That is to say, if someone has been educated in a certain way, it is normal that during that process he has been told what is correct and what is not.

Then, when the person is fully aware that there is good and bad, right and wrong, thoughts of opposition to the norm begin to operate in his mind.

This phenomenon is completely natural in all of us, it will only be a problem when these thoughts represent limitations for the person in significant areas of his life. Thus, cognitive diffusion methods seek to make the person understand the naturalness of his thoughts. to make the person understand the naturalness of his or her thoughts..

Cognitive defusion techniques

Let us now look at some tools that can be useful when applying this theory.

1. Enunciate our thoughts

When we are having an intrusive thought that disturbs us we proceed to place a statement as follows; we place the thought at the end of the following sentence "I am not" or "I am", all depending on what the thought is.

For example, if we are thinking about hurting an animal or a person, we simply place that thought as "I am not an aggressive person, and I don't have to hurt anyone".

2. The loss of meaning

This technique consists of repeating continuously a word or phrase that comes to mind when we are having negative thoughts, so that after a while of repetition, the word that is being said loses its meaning. the word that is being said loses its sense.. Then we must do the same with the thought that bothers us, until we remove the sense, and in such a way that it is no longer a thought from which we try to flee, but we will be able to face it by repeating it constantly.

These exercises are very useful to get our reality away from those intrusive thoughts that can become really annoying, and if we make them a habit is very likely with the passage of time the annoying thoughts disappear.

Bibliographical references:

• Baker, D. B. (2011). The Oxford Handbook of the History of Psychology: Global Perspectives. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Jarzombek, M. (2000). The Psychologizing of Modernity Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.