The cognitive defusion It is a basic technique in psychology that seeks to help understand the nature of thoughts. It seeks to demonstrate to the person that thoughts are not fixed realities that can direct their life, but are simply thoughts or beliefs, subjective interpretations that can be learn to drive so that they do not become disabling.
It is an effective technique to get rid of obsessive or ruminative thoughts. It is used in different types of therapy, such as, for example, or, more specifically, .
The basis of cognitive defusion
Cognitive defusion does not aim to eradicate negative or obsessive thoughts, but rather for the person to learn to discern between what they are and what they think, breaking the fusion between thought and person (defusion).
Work on reworking those unwanted thoughts so that they stop causing discomfort.
What are the main cognitive defusion techniques?
Loss of meaning
It is based on removing negative meaning from thoughts so as not to be afraid of them, distance oneself and be able to confront them. Through the repetition of words, practically until we are left with only the signifier and the thought stops making sense.
I’m having the thought that…
The subject must synthesize the negative thought in a short sentence, in the polarity “I am…/I am not…” and transform it according to the following sequence:
- Start with the short obsessive thought sentence, example: “I’m a loser.”
- Try to merge with said thought for 10 seconds.
- Then transform it, so that it becomes “I am having the thought that I am a loser.” In this way you gradually disassociate yourself from the thought, you gain perspective… You can write it down or say it out loud.
- Give it another twist: now reproduce it as “I’m noticing that I’m having the thought that I’m a loser.” Now the distance is even greater, he has detached himself quite a bit from you. It is an important step.
Turn thoughts into a movie
Imagining our thoughts projected on a movie screen helps us calm our minds and distance them, to see them as fiction, one of the many possible ones.
Then, we concentrate on the light that projects the images, which is the equivalent of our mind. We could change the movie and show another story, right?
Sing a song or parody with other voices
It consists of singing the thought with a silly melody or saying it in the voice of a movie character. The feeling that will come to you, similar to the previous technique, is that your thoughts are not real, but part of a fiction that you have constructed.
Computer screen
This technique brings the imagination into play so that thought loses its meaning and emotional bond.
- Try to merge with the negative thought for 10 seconds.
- Imagine a computer screen and visualize your thought written on it black on white.
- Next, mentally play with the color of the text: green, blue, red…
- Play with the font, change the typography, make it bold, italic, in quotes…
- Change the color back to black and alter the format to your liking. With your imagination, put the words together or further apart, space them out, put them vertically, etc.
- Now, encourage them, make them jump, spin in circles, merge, get messy…
- Imagine a karaoke ball jumping from word to word to the beat of popular music.
Tag your thoughts
The person has to learn to label their thoughts to be able to think objectively and logically. Two types of labels can be applied:
- Descriptive thoughts: focused on direct experiences that reflect reality. For example: “It’s hot.”
- Evaluative thoughts: involve judgments and generalizations. For example: “The heat is terrible.”
Once we learn to label them, the key is to get rid of the evaluative thoughts that make us suffer. These thoughts are only interpretations that we make of reality and we must question them. Perhaps we are exaggerating, misunderstanding or taking the issue out of context.
Disobedience
Most people assume cognitive fusion as imperative. As if the mere fact of having thoughts implies putting them into practice.
Therefore, an efficient cognitive defusion technique is to disobey our thoughts. For example, standing up and saying, “You can’t open that window,” but instead of following the order, standing up and opening the window. Repeat the command mentally while carrying out the action.
In this way, we become aware and train ourselves not to assume thoughts as orders.
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