[everdrive]

I think that's a fair interpretation, however I'd strongly argue two points:

- Sometimes, emotions precede (and at least set the stage) for thoughts.

- The reality is not so clear cut as the CBTs state. ie, they say that "Thoughts [always] dictate emotions."

That said, CBT is still very effective, and will yield improvements for most people. It's just that their core tenant seems to be an oversimplification.

[haswell]

I think that's fair as well with the "sometimes", and I fully agree re: the oversimplification. I think CBT is ultimately labeling the most recognizable stages of certain mental phenomena and providing a framework for interacting with and guiding that phenomena. But as a discipline I think CBT knows very little (relatively speaking) about the machinery involved, and at best we have a low resolution understanding that is surely incomplete.

But yeah, my belief in CBT is mostly for its utility.

As a side note, I've found some of Lisa Feldman Barrett's work on emotions to be pretty interesting. It dives into newer research behind how emotions are intrinsically connected to other bodily processes, and explores some of ways that the emergence of emotional states doesn't match our intuitions.