Need examples in the ?story? concept in Cognitive Therapy

I am giving a presentation on the ?Cognitive Therapy? movement in
psychotherapy.  And I have 2 question I need answered.

Overview:
From my research, there seems to be 2 schools of thought on Cognitive Therapy.  

One is exemplified in the best selling self help book by David Burns,
M.D. in his book: Feeling Good - The New Mood Therapy
(website: http://www.feelinggood.com/)


The other is more complex.  It is based around the concept of
?stories? or ?rackets?.  I encountered this one in a number of places,
including The Landmark Forum (formerly EST) 
(www.landmarkeducation.com), ?The Work of Byron Katie?
(www.thework.org), and other.

The concept is that an event happens (someone slaps you), and then a
part of your mind (sometimes called the little voice, or always
already knowing by the Landmark people) makes a ?interpretation? of
this event.  This interpretation that you then make does the real
damage.  It generates, angry, decently, negative self-talk, even
physical or verbal action that you might regret later.

What happened was a fact, in this case, a slap in the face. It had
little real harm to you.  The ?story? (i.e. interpretation) you made
around this fact is what did the real damage (disturb your mental
peace, cause anxiously, cause regrettable reaction, etc.).  So that is
the concept I am interested in.

These concepts of ?stories? or ?rackets? are in the same vein as the
Cognitive Therapy concepts in Dr Burn?s book, but they seem more
complex, and are applicable to more complex events or interactions.

The questions I have are:

#1 ? Can you give me some real world examples of such ?stories? or
?rackets? that people made, and maybe what the consequences were?

#2 ? Where does the ?stories? or ?rackets? concept come from?   The
concepts for Cognitive Therapy come from 3 core psychotherapists in
the 30s, 50s, and 60. This is described in the intro to Dr Burns book.
 But where does the concept of ?stories? or ?rackets? come from?

#3 (optional) ? Can you find me any diagrams or simple explanations of
any of the above concepts?

Thanx in advnce,
Jim West

The est 'technology' was a variety of puzzle pieces from various
sources.  It was trademarked and secret.  I'm not sure we can get you
'home' on this question.

"Est is a hodgepodge of philosophical bits and pieces culled from the
carcasses of existential philosophy, motivational psychology, Maxwell
Maltz's Psycho-cybernetics, Zen Buddhism, Alan Watts, Freud, Abraham
Maslow, L. Ron Hubbard, Hinduism, Dale Carnegie, Norman Vincent Peale,
P.T. Barnum, and anything else that Erhard's intuition told him would
work in the burgeoning Human Potential market."
http://skepdic.com/est.html

Rewriting your 'story.'
http://www.ivillage.com/diet/features/shapespring/articles/0,,255455_62565,00.html

Rick Ross:
http://www.rickross.com/reference/landmark/landmark62.html

Some have suggested the work emerged from Parmenides:
"Not far from Rotblitt's home in Jerusalem's Abu Tor neighborhood,
Israelis who returned from Puna set up a tantric commune, Oshu-style,
and next to it a restaurant called "Zorba the Buddha." Throughout the
country psychological marathons were conducted by the est
organization, whose founder, Werner Erhard, began his professional
life - like Leo, the founder of Emin - as an encyclopedia salesman.
"What is, is, and what is not, is not," Erhard told the participants
in the marathon sessions, revealing the profound wisdom he had perhaps
gleaned from Parmenides, or perhaps hewed from his heart. "Mankind,"
he declared, "is on the brink of a psycho-phsyiological mutation from
which will emerge a new type of human being" - spiritually exalted,
transcending matter and free of the moral norms of the past."
http://inbari.co.il/en_hilonim.htm 
http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/p/parmenid.htm

Somehow I thought the term 'racket' referred to Eric Berne's "Games
People Play" from the 1960s or possibly Claude Steiner's ("Scripts
People Live" and the 'script matrix').
"Thus some of these people may become dissociated from their physical
being, losing their "center," so to speak ? their awareness of the
messages the body sends to the mind concerning its needs. In this same
way, as Dr. Steiner points out, "they may be racked by some sort of
pain with which they have lost touch and don't really feel on a
conscious level."(1)  Life just seems vaguely unpleasant, hollow, or
meaningless ? something appears to be missing."
http://frogsandprinces.dawntreader.net/scripts.html
http://www.itaa-net.org/talibrary/tajnettheory.htm

The est/Landmark training was fairly jargon-laden with phrases like
'got it,' 'running your racket,' 'what did you make it mean,' 'make a
clearing for,' and 'possibility.'  I'm not sure how close we can get
you to your actual answer, but I'll leave these clues in case you or
another researcher wish to further investigate.

The 'make a clearing for' and 'possibility,' I believe, are both
attributable to Meister Eckhart and also have to do with the letting
go of our 'stories.'

"To be poor in spirit is to completely strip ourselves, to " divest "
ourselves of our personal goals and desires, to empty out every
vestige of self-love and self-will, not in order to replace them with
higher goals and desires, but rather in order to " let " something
else--the impulse of God's own life within us-- take over. In that way
the words of St. Paul will be literally fulfilled in us: I live, now
not I, but Christ lives in me. Such " letting be " Eckhart calls in
German " Gelassenheit," from the verb lassen (to leave, to let go, to
let be). The poor man thus makes himself empty in order to make the
way clear for one greater than himself."
http://www.thomist.org/journal/1978,%20vol.%2042/April/1978%20April%20A%20Caputo%20web.htm
http://www.nwlink.com/~pauld/northlake/services/Fennema_12-10-00.html

Hope this information is helpful (if a bit off track).
V

Is this what you are looking for?

http://www.socialanxietyinstitute.org/audioseriesusers.html - Stories of people
?Then and Now...
Before & After the Therapy...
How My Life Has Changed?

What is the theory behind cognitive therapy? 

? Cognitive therapy is based on the cognitive model, which is, simply
that the way we perceive situations influences how we feel
emotionally. For example, one person reading this pamphlet might
think, "Wow! This sounds good, it's just what I've always been looking
for!" and feels happy. Another person reading this information might
think, "Well, this sounds good but I don't think I can do it." This
person feels sad and discouraged. So it is not a situation which
directly affects how a person feels emotionally, but rather, his or
her thoughts in that situation. When people are in distress, they
often do not think clearly and their thoughts are distorted in some
way. Cognitive therapy helps people to identify their distressing
thoughts and to evaluate how realistic the thoughts are. Then they
learn to change their distorted thinking. When they think more
realistically, they feel better. The emphasis is also consistently on
solving problems and initiating behavioral change.?
http://www.beckinstitute.org/training/q&a.htm  A Great link.  Examples of stories


?Cognitive therapy is also used to help challenge the patient's
irrational cognitive beliefs that feed the anxiety or the panic about
being in specific places or situations. The therapist helps the
patient replace these irrational beliefs with more realistic and
adaptive belief systems to help reduce the fear and anxiety.?
http://mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=469&cn=1&clnt%3Dclnt00001&

http://mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=304&cn=0&clnt%3Dclnt00001&
  - Real stories.

http://mentalhelp.net/poc/view_index.php

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A26812-2002Sep2


Books that you can order from Amazon about Cognitive Therapy

Title
Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders
Author
Aaron T. Beck, M.D. Basic introduction to cognitive therapy by the
founder of cognitive therapy

Title
Cognitive Therapy of Depression
Author
Aaron T. Beck, M.D.

Title
Cognitive Therapy: Basics and Beyond
Author
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D. The author explains the principles and practice
of cognitive therapy

Title
Learned Optimism
Author
Martin E.P. Seligman, Ph.D

Title
Mind Over Mood: Change How You Feel by Changing the Way You Think
Author
Dennis Greenberger, Christine A. Padesky. This is a cognitive therapy
treatment workbook. The manual contains examples and written exercises
to help clients understand their moods and change their behaviour.

Title
Reinventing Your Life: How to Break Free from Negative Life Patterns
and Feel Good Again
Author
Jeffrey E. Young, Janet S. Klosko. This guide uses cognitive therapy
techniques to show patients how to change negative behaviour patterns.

Title
What You Can Change?and What You Can't: The Complete Guide to
Successful Self-Improvement
Author
Martin E.P. Seligman, Ph.D. This book contains techniques and
therapies for self-improvement


Albert Ellis, Ph.D.
Ellis was born in Pittsburgh in 1913 and raised in New York City.

Columbia awarded him a doctorate in 1947 Ellis had come to believe
that psychoanalysis was the deepest and most effective form of
therapy.
By 1955 Ellis had given up psychoanalysis entirely, and instead was
concentrating on changing people's behaviour by confronting them with
their irrational beliefs and persuading them to adopt rational ones.
http://www.nacbt.org/leadersincbt.htm

Mediated Learning and Structural Cognitive Modifiability 
As a Methodology for Psychotherapy
This paper presents a model of cognitive therapy that is being
developed in the Division of Specialised Education at the University
of the Witwatersrand. It is called Mediated Cognitive Therapy (MCT)
because it has its roots in traditional cognitive therapy but derives
its methodology from Reuven Feuerstein?s theories of Structural
Cognitive Modifiability, the Mediated Learning Experience (MLE), and
of Cognitive Functions and Dysfunctions (Feuerstein, Rand, Hoffman, &
Miller, 1980).
://www.google.co.uk/search?q=cache:fjxHRv-8LkUJ:www.iace.coged.org/journal/v1i3/Abstracts.pdf+Feuerstein+%22Cognitive+Therapy%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

Let me know if you want more?

Hola Seņor West,

I was giving your question some extra thought and decided to search on
Albert Ellis' RET.   Berne did seem to coin this term in the
psychotherapeutic lingo arena.

"Eric Berne realized that some people tend to respond again and again
with the same emotional response, say self-criticism, pessimism, or
anger. He called this reoccurring emotion the patient's "racket." The
racket--an emotion based on faulty thinking--has become a basic part
of your personality."
http://mentalhelp.net/psyhelp/chap14/chap14g.htm
http://www.lifesciencetherapy.co.uk/TA2.htm
http://www.ta-tutor.com/ta101bks.html
http://www.runet.edu/~dcogswel/emotions/ta.html
http://www.analyticalq.com/journal/j030304.htm
http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:weyFE96PI7IJ:www.cghub.co.za/docs/newdocs1/The%2520Transactional%2520Analysis%2520Model.doc+%22transactional+analysis%22+%22your+racket%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

"While Ellis may not have been the first to recognize that cognition
is the key to understanding human behavior, he does appear to be the
first to appreciate its value as a significant therapeutic tool. While
I am mindful that the roots of cognitive therapy can be traced at
least as far back as Epictetus (some 2,000 years ago), Ellis was
certainly the first to understand its full meaning and value and
consequently fashioned it as the centerpiece of his Rational Emotive
Therapy."
http://www.nacbt.org/97spring.htm

So you might want to trace this back through the Stoics if that's
meaningful to you:
http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/epicench.html

Racket/Story examples:
http://www.rickross.com/reference/forum/Art106pt4.html

I also thought it might interesting to trace the phrase 'what's your
racket (line of work)' or 'running a racket.'
[ETYMOLOGY: 16th Century: probably of imitative origin; compare rattle1] 
http://www.wordreference.com/english/definition.asp?en=racket

racket - "loud noise," 1565, said to be imitative. Meaning "dishonest
activity" (1785) is perhaps from racquet, via notion of "game,"
reinforced by rack-rent "extortionate rent" (1591), from rack (1).
Racketeer first recorded 1928.

racket/raquet - c.1385, originally "tennis-like game played with open
hand," from O.Fr. requette "racket, palm of the hand," perhaps via It.
racchetta or Sp. raqueta, both from Ar. rahat, a form of raha "palm of
the hand." Meaning "device used in tennis, etc.," first recorded 1500.
http://www.etymonline.com/r1etym.htm

'Racket' seems to be a bit of slang from the 1920s so I think Cab
Calloway might be involved (just kidding).  Although the Arabic form
"raha" {palm of the hand} isn't that linguistically removed from the
internalized 'parental' slap  (pardon me while I pause for a hmmmm
moment).

That's all I have for you today but if I embark on any further
free-association picnics, I'll be glad to add to this.
V

Wow.  All your comments were great.  Please give me time time to
digest them.  Also, is there a way to split points?

Before I begin, I want to clarify that I am no expert in this field. I
just have a passion for psycology. Perhaps a layman's opinion on your
question might offer you a different perspective. :)

To begin with, you state that - 'there seems to be 2 schools of
thought on Cognitive Therapy.'

1. Based on 'Feeling Good ......
2. Based on 'Stories' ....

Somehow I feel you have confused yourself a bit here. Infact, they
both exemplify the same thing about cognitive therapy!

Dr. Burns, in his famous book, 'Feeling Good' ... says that (I qoute
from the book) "It is not the actual events but your perceptions that
result in changes in your mood." Page 30 - he also goes on to describe
this digramatically.

According to you, the 'Story' concepts seems a bit more complex. (....
but they seem more complex, and are applicable to more complex events
or interactions.")

How is it more complex?

According to my research your "STORY" concept is based on the following :

EVENT >>> THOUGHT >>> FEELINGS & EMOTIONS >>> ACTION.

That is, when an event occurs to a person, some thoughts (perspective)
about it might run through his/her mind ... These thoughts induce some
feeling and/or emotions ... based on the feelings and emotions you do
something (act) ...

Lets put it into an example: Lets imagine a situation (an event) 

Your wife is late from work. Its 9.00 pm. You think 'perhaps she is
caught in traffic' (perception). This thought might perhaps cause you
little worry (feeling). So you go about doing what you generally do
(action).

But if you think, "Oh God what if she has had accident or has been
mugged". You might panic or get angry or fearful. You might sit and
worry or you might run out to find your wife or ... one can go on
speculating what you can do ...

As you can see, there is no difference in the "STORY" thing and what
Dr. Burns say ....

The concept of cognitive therapy is - When we are depressed we do not
think clearly. Somehow, we distort our thoughts.

So, here your "STORY" is nothing but the thoughts that run through a
person's mind ...

And that can be contested based on the simple method of cognitive
therapy that Dr. Burns made famous ...

Am am still digesting the comments.  Can I reopen this question. 
Also, can I split the fee among two researchers?  I got such great
responces, i do not want to have this closed without anyone getting
paid.  Please help.