*** Note this was written in December 2018 for a Life University course called Introduction of Positive Psychology. I figured I may as well share this on a public platform because what good are the writing/thoughts if I just keep them to myself?
Cognitive Defusion’s Role in Cultivating Peace
The key underrated element of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is cognitive defusion. If people practiced this aspect more consistently, much of the current internal and external tension of the world would diminish. This category of this research paper will be broken up into four sections: Introduction to Defusion, Defusion’s Effect on Internal Tension, Defusion’s Effect on External Tension, and Conclusion. Defusion is one of the mindfulness skills used in ACT, and its practice will be explained in the initial section. In the following section, it will be discussed how practicing defusion can reduce the tension within an individual and maximize well-being. The third section will focus on how defusion can benefit the world and improve relations between people. Defusion can bring inner peace to individuals and world peace to society. Though in order for defusion to be valued in society, it must be understood first.
Introduction to Defusion
Defusion is a critical mindfulness skill in ACT practice. It is defined as “distancing from, and letting go of, unhelpful thoughts, beliefs, and memories” (Kashdan & Ciarrochi, 2013, p .3). When a person is struggling with defusion, he/she would be viewing thoughts as an accurate reflection of reality. However, it is irrational to view thoughts as absolute truth because every person’s perspective is unique and created differently. It is important to see thoughts as “mental events rather than as necessarily accurate reflections of reality” (Forman et al., 2012). Defusion allows people to clearly view thoughts for what they are and empowers people to have thoughts about their own thoughts. This is impactful because it essentially gives people reign over their thinking.
Noticing the process for developing one’s own thoughts allows people to understand clearly how their thoughts came to be. An analogy example of defusion is if somebody holds her hand out in front of her face and is asked to describe her hand (Forman et al., 2012). If the person’s hand is too close to her face, she can not see much because it is blurry. But once the hand is distanced a bit, fingers and lines in the hand can be seen. If this person never distanced her hand outward a few more inches, she would incorrectly maintain the belief that there are no lines or details in a hand. This scenario can be applied to one’s own thoughts as well. When somebody is too consumed with their thoughts and not able to step back and examine them, they cannot be looked at clearly or objectively. The thought processes of this hypothetical individual would be blurry and it is hard to maximize well-being and self-develop if the mind is fuzzy.
Lacking defusion can make it extremely challenging to address issues that arise in life because if somebody is lacking an attitude of “dispassionate curiosity” towards thoughts, there would be no inspiration to confront limiting beliefs (Zhang et al., 2018). Immediately when something is challenging for an individual not practicing defusion, negative beliefs would be self-destructive. However, if someone experiencing adversity or a challenging scenario opts to use a defusion technique such as repeating the name of a feared object/situation until it loses meaning, the negative impact of destructive thoughts would be limited (Zhang et al., 2018). Through distancing from negative thoughts and viewing them as separate entities than reality, defusion is a worthwhile practice for individuals concerned with maximizing well-being.
Defusion’s Effect on Internal Tension
People are often in an internal battle with their thoughts. Though, practicing defusion can reduce the negative effects of this battle. To start, the practice of defusion “allows self-criticisms to pass through the mind without having to be believed, proven wrong, or otherwise engaged” (Masuda et al, 2010). This defusion result does not necessarily reduce the tension, but it reduces the negative feelings of that tension. It contributes to people developing a positive perspective of the internal battle within and does not multiply the negative side effects of being self-critical. Many times people are overly critical about being self-critical and defusion helps to fights against that.
The elimination of negative perspectives on detrimental thoughts has been shown to benefit individuals in a research context. In one study, three sessions of defusion tactics “with a goal of altering one’s perspective on thoughts, but not the thoughts per se, increased psychological flexibility, decreased negative thinking, and reduced psychological distress, depressive symptoms, and low self-esteem” (Hinton & Gaynor, 2010). So a potential side effect of defusion is not only reduced negative perspectives, but also a reduction of the negative thoughts themselves. And even if the initial thoughts themselves are not reduced, “the negative inhibitory functions are reduced, promoting increased psychological flexibility” in individuals. (Hinton & Gaynor, 2010). In another study using a population of breast cancer survivors, ACT tactics including defusion increased psychological flexibility, improved mood and quality of life, and decreased depression in the experimental group when compared to a control group” (Najvani et al, 2015). Increased psychological flexibility is a common benefit of using defusion across multiple studies. This benefit empowers people to understand their thoughts.
The elimination of negative perspectives and increased psychological flexibility helps to remove self-judgement. One example that demonstrates enhanced psychological flexibility is in a scenario where someone has an urge to eat a piece of chocolate cake (Zhang et al., 2018). Due to a diet aimed to eat healthier, this person may have a judgement on if eating the cake would be good or bad. Psychological flexibility may not necessarily eliminate the urge to eat the cake, but it will teach the person to be mindful and recognize the urge. It is explained that the “focus should be on how the individual interacts with these thoughts, rather than their form or frequency” (Zhang et al., 2018). Through this improved psychological flexibility from defusion, the internal tension due to the urge to eat chocolate cake will yield fewer negative side effects on an individual’s psyche. It is clear that defusion enables people to form healthy relationships with their thoughts and aids people in cultivating internal peace of mind.
Defusion’s Effect on External Tension
Defusion’s reduction of the negative effects of internal tension in turn reduces external tension as well. As previously explained, defusion “leads to a reduction in psychological distress as people learn to accept their thoughts and feelings, seeing them as constructs rather than objective facts” (Hagarty, 2016). This recognition of thoughts as separate entities and not facts of reality helps people dissociate from thoughts. Essentially, people adopt the mentality that their thoughts are not themselves. This understanding can be used towards other people’s thoughts as well. In daily conversation, it would be beneficial if people practiced defusion in analyzing thoughts of others. This practice would reduce the external conflict in the world.
A significant portion of the external chaos in the world today stems from disagreements related to values, politics, or specific actions. On a more practical level, utilizing defusion when a person says something controversial would be productive to the interaction. For example, perhaps a boss is told by an employee that the strict procedures for note-taking takes away from the productivity of meetings. A boss who understands defusion will not tie the constructive criticism directly to the employee’s identity, and will instead evaluate the idea for what it is. By distancing the thought articulated by her employee from the employee himself, it can be evaluated effectively. Through evaluation of the idea, perhaps it has merit and through defusion, the boss is able to discuss the idea with the employee without bringing forth tension to the scenario.
On a broader level, groups of people can utilize defusion techniques to understand different viewpoints as well. For example, if Republicans and Democrats used defusion when viewing the opposing viewpoint, more productive dialogue would follow. A major barrier in conversations between groups is forming group identities and associating ideas to a particular group. However, this labeling is unproductive. Through defusion, an individual will be able to analyze a thought from another person without showing bias in the analysis. Essentially, defusion would help all sides see thoughts clearly without the unnecessary distraction of noting who said the thought. It should be recognized by all sides of a group that disagreements are not tension; you can have disagreements without having negative tension. Utilizing the practice of defusion would reduce external tension and unnecessary conflict in the world.
Conclusion
Practicing cognitive defusion consistently will change a person’s relationship with his/her thoughts. A person would understand that thoughts are not reality; thoughts are not a person’s being. By weakening thoughts’ control over a person’s psyche, the individual regains power. Peace is restored. This newfound inner peace extends to external peace when cognitive defusion is practiced on other people’s thoughts. Cognitive defusion should be a central learning component in society through workshop trainings. It should be noted that ACT workshops have paid dividends in the past. In a 2-day ACT training workshop for psychologists working with people with MS, 90% of participants indicated the workshop was effective and mindfulness was shown to increase post-workshop for participants (Pakenham et al, 2018). There is reason to suggest that workshops dedicated to cognitive defusion would have benefits and help to reduce the unnecessary tension in the world. Cognitive defusion workshops should become mainstream in the workplace, schools, and other sections of society. Internal dialogue inside an individual’s mind and external dialogue between individuals would be more productive, and the world would become a more peaceful environment.
References:
Forman, E. M., Herbert, J. D., Juarascio, A. S., Yeomans, P. D., Zebell, J. A., Goetter, E. M., & Moitra, E. (2012). The Drexel defusion scale: A new measure of experiential distancing. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science,1(1-2), 55-65. doi:10.1016/j.jcbs.2012.09.001
Hagarty, I. (n.d.). Case Study 1: An Evidence-Based Practice Review Report Theme: School Based Interventions for Learning How effective are Acceptance and Commitment Therapy based interventions delivered in school settings at reducing psychological distress in children and young people? Retrieved from http://www.ucl.ac.uk/educational-psychology/resources/CS1Hagarty16-19.pdf
Hinton, M. J., & Gaynor, S. T. (2010). Cognitive Defusion for Psychological Distress, Dysphoria, and Low Self-Esteem: A Randomized Technique Evaluation Trial of Vocalizing Strategies. International Journal of Behavioral Consultation and Therapy,6(3). Retrieved from http://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2011-08910-001.html
Kashdan, T. B., & Ciarrochi, J. (2013). Mindfulness, acceptance, and positive psychology: The seven foundations of well-being. Oakland, CA: Context Press.
Masuda, A., Twohig, M. P., Stormo, A. R., Feinstein, A. B., Chou, Y., & Wendell, J. W. (2010). The effects of cognitive defusion and thought distraction on emotional discomfort and believability of negative self-referential thoughts. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry,41(1), 11-17. doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2009.08.006
Najvani, B. D., Neshatdoost, H. T., Abedi, M. R., & Mokarian, F. (2015). The Effect of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Depression and Psychological Flexibility in Women With Breast Cancer. Zahedan Journal of Research in Medical Sciences,17(4). doi:10.5812/zjrms.17(4)2015.965
Pakenham, K. I., Scott, T., & Uccelli, M. M. (2018). Short Report: Evaluation of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Training for Psychologists Working with People with Multiple Sclerosis. International Journal of MS Care,20(1), 44-48. doi:10.7224/1537-2073.2016-080
Zhang, C., Leeming, E., Smith, P., Chung, P., Hagger, M. S., & Hayes, S. C. (2018). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Health Behavior Change: A Contextually-Driven Approach. Frontiers in Psychology,8. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02350