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| COGNITIVE THERAPY |
Many existential therapists use cognitive therapy,
which focuses on immediate thought processing—
how a person perceives or interprets his or her experience
and determines how he or she feels and behaves.
For example, if a person interprets a situation
as dangerous, he or she experiences anxiety and tries
to escape. Basic emotions of sadness, elation, anxiety,
and anger are reactions to perceptions of loss, gain,
danger, and wrongdoing by others (Beck & Rush,
1995). Aaron Beck is credited with pioneering cognitive
theory in persons with depression.
