And an even more interesting response. There's "automatic thoughts' - which CBT folks DO tend to deal with in a 'rational' way - and there's "cognition" - which some physicists believe may even be playing a part in subatomic responses, though there is much controversy about that.

on the other hand, about 20 years ago, when I wrote about cognition in one celled animals, there was starting to be a convergence of agreement about it, and by about 10 years ago, it was finally accepted.

There appears to be, even in amoeba, a synergistic interaction between some kind of extremely primitive sensing and motivation, something we might call "feeling" if we think of it as the simplest form of attraction and version, and then some kind of cognitive apprehension of the environment (as in experiments where amoeba are shown to have the capacity to solve a maze)

Long story short, affect, motivation and cognition grow stronger and more complex over 3+ billion years.

Leaving research and speculation, how does this inform our work as clinicians - you can find depending not only on the individual, but on where they are at at a particular time in their lives, that any of those areas can be levers for change - affect, cognition (but NOT, or at least, rarely, conscious thought) and motivation.

And finally (I have been waiting for this for 50 years!) folks like Dan Siegel, in his book aware, and Steven Hayes, founder of ACT therapy, are finding that connecting patients to the context - of open awareness - which is more than feelings, thoughts, emotions, motivation, sensation - "In which" you might say, all those take place - is perhaps the most profound basis of healing.

(I like your writing a lot - just dropped you a note)