There’s Always Another Point of View

In fact there is almost certainly many hundreds of points of view that are equally valid!

In this first principle of CBT we should try to be aware of the fact that the way WE perceive any particular experience, or extract a ‘meaning’ about something is NOT the only possible solution.

This is easily illustrated by the classic optical illusion in which people tend to see either one or the other image.

Some people see an old lady with a hooked nose staring down at the ground, whilst other people see a young ‘Parisian’ girl looking away to her right with the picture highlighting her strong left jaw bone.

Both of these ‘perceptions’ are equally valid and its neither one or the other in isolation. In fact, many people are able to ‘morph’ one perception into the other and back again, but interestingly, it is not possible to perceive both different perceptions simultaneously! Each point of view is equally valid and are both separate perceptions of exactly the same ‘thing’.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy makes the same assertions about ANY external experience and says that it can be ‘interpreted’ in a number of ways. The way that any individual ‘decides’ to interpret an external event is, in general, ‘compliant’ or in accordance with what they ‘believe’.

Our own individual ‘perceptual filters’ become very quickly engrained, or habitual, and pre-dispose us towards ‘seeing’ the world in particular ways.

By being aware of this tendency to ‘interpret’ in this way, we can open up a the possibility that certain events or experiences can ‘mean’ something different to that which we might have believed was ‘fixed’.