Behaviour and cognitive therapy: Theoretical aspects and indications

Behaviour and cognitive therapies or BCT are psychotherapies directly born from experimental psychology at the end of the 1920s. They rely on two main theoretical streams: The first one is represented by the learning psychology and the second recently by the cognitive psychology. This psychological psychotherapy takes place in around 15 interviews. The aim is to reduce emotional suffering by progressively developing more functional behaviours adapted to the actual situation, by working not only on attitudes but also on emotions and thoughts or cognitions together with the painful experience. By numerous scientific studies regarding different pathologies like anxious disorders, depressions, addictions, psychotic disorders or different fields of health psychology, behaviour and cognitive therapies have widely demonstrated their efficiency. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.