User:Thierry Dugnolle/draft2

Theoretical foundations for cognitive therapy

The unity of the living body
In a living living body all parts vivify all others and are vivified by them (Aristotle, The parts of animals). This solidarity is essential. A foot can not really be a foot if it is separated from the body. To be a foot it must be alive, it must be part of the body. It is fed, cared for and protected by the rest of the body and in return it serves to walk. The same goes for all other parts of the body, including the brain structures that cause conscious emotions and will.

The beneficence of emotions
Homeostasis (Claude Bernard), ie the stabilization of the interior milieu, is vital for all living beings, because they must maintain internal conditions that allow them to live. A deviation from this internal equilibrium must be followed by reactions to return to equilibrium, otherwise the organism is struggling to survive or dies.

The system of emotions participates in the homeostasis of the whole body, but it is also endowed with a homeostasis of its own. Emotional stability is the ability to regain one's inner peace despite everything that moves us away from it. Strong emotions are deviations from tranquility and must be followed by balancing reactions for life to be preserved.

The inner tranquility is not necessarily great happiness or serenity. When we have been struck by misfortune, we sometimes still manage to keep a little inner peace, life goes on, but we are not necessarily very happy. Be that as it may, this tranquility is a kind of vital minimum. If we lose it and we do not know how to find it again, life becomes impossible, or very painful.

The system of emotions automatically triggers reactions intended to maintain the inner balance, but it is not purely autonomous, it can warn the conscience and incite it to react. Emotions work as warnings and evaluators. They inform the conscience of the present problems and they serve to evaluate the potential solutions. From this point of view, they do not oppose reason, on the contrary, they encourage us to think and reason in order to find solutions, and they orient us, like a compass, or like the Star of the North.

When an emotion is very strong, it becomes imperious. It mobilizes all the resources of consciousness and will, we can not but think about it, and all the other objectives are as if erased by one particular problem, which has aroused the emotion. From this point of view, emotion blinds us because it prevents us from thinking about everything that does not concern it. It is like a selfish dictator who only wants to be obeyed, and who does not care about the rest.

The inner tranquility indicates that the external conditions are, at least, bearable. That is enough to search for it. If we can not find it, it is because life has become unbearable. But tranquility is not only a condition of survival, it is also and above all a necessary condition for the development of will, reason and freedom. In the absence of tranquility, one is as enslaved and blinded by one's emotions and one can not take full advantage of the resources of the rational will.

Emotions are beneficial as long as they are regulated and stabilized, as long as they are only temporary deviations from a balance of tranquility, which one always manages to find.

The self-protective will
Thanks to the imagination, we can extend the field of possibilities to infinity. We may want everything we imagine, but this power of the will is also its weakness, because the will can be a danger to itself, it can cause itself a lot of harm and even self-destruct. The will must want itself. The individual must want to protect, preserve and increase his freedom of exercise of his will. Among all of his objectives, there must always a priority objective of maintaining the ability to pursue objectives. Otherwise the imagination is likely to lead to self-destruction. To survive and develop, the will must be self-protective.

To preserve good conditions of exercise, the will must support the system of emotions in its quest for tranquility, the conscience must solve the problems that have aroused the emotion and it must also play a moderating role, so that the emotion do not invade us and do not blind us. But vis-à-vis emotions the imagination is naturally amplifying. An emotion awakens representations that tend to strengthen it. Emotion and imagination excite each other and thus maintain a kind of inner conflagration that appropriates all the resources of consciousness and will. We must learn to control our emotions and our imagination if we want the will to develop normally its self-protective powers, if we want to know how to maintain our inner balance and to find it after having deviated from it.

The conscious will must therefore be a guardian angel, both for itself, for the emotional system and for the whole body. And of course it can further extend the scope of its protection.

The principle of cognitive therapy
Use your conscience to restore your guardian angel power, and make it stronger.