COGNITIVE THERAPY, CONSTRUCTIVIST METATHEORY, AND RATIONAL EXPLANATION

Cognitive therapies have shifted clinical explanation away from motiva tional formulations of disorder which employ both belief (cognitive) a nd desire (conative) concepts towards a purely cognitive and motivatio nless one. However, cognitivist explanation, when taken with the const ructivist metatheory which usually accompanies it, (a) is incomplete w ithout a conative principle - and attempts to use a self-concept fail to redress this incompleteness, and lead only to explanatory regress; (b) leaves beliefs ontologically uncertain and confused; and (c) assum es, but does not explain, rationality. In contrast Freud's metapsychol ogy - regardless of its theoretical problems - provides a metatheory u ntroubled by these criticisms.