The Development of Treatment Conceptualizations in Cognitive Therapy

Abstract

As a young child, I recall watching my mother bake a cake. It appeared that she took a pinch of this, a handful of that, two eggs, and mixed it all together. When I asked her about her recipe, she told me that she had no written recipe, that the only recipe that she had was in her head. When I asked her how she knew how much of each ingredient to use, she shrugged, and replied, “After a while, you just know.” When I asked her how and from whom she learned these recipes, she responded that she learned them from her mother by watching quietly, and not asking so many questions. Despite the apparent lack of a written recipe or formula, my mother’s food always came out tasting just as good each time as it was the time before. How could that be, I wondered, if she had no written recipe? That mystery persists to this day. When I ask her for the recipe for a favorite food, she replies, “I’ll cook it for you. You just watch and see what I do.” Watching her is easy. The process looks so astoundingly simple that I wonder why I couldn’t do it myself. After watching and carefully writing down what I see, I go home and try the recipe.