{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.025466893039049237, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0010186757215619694, 'mean_word_length': 5.590604026845638, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Metacognitive therapy for anxiety and depression

Therapies for mental disorders have been almost innumerable. Starting with psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud with a high psychosexual orientation to unravel the unconscious, the psychotherapy approach which is deterministic in nature, focusses more on the past and unobservable aspects of the individual, than on the present and observable aspects. As a reaction to this approach, behaviorism emerged which focussed more on the present and the observable aspects of individual behaviors as against the past and the unconscious factors which cannot be observed. Behaviorists believed that ‘‘every behaviour is learned and so can be unlearned,’’ and even anxiety, depressive, or obsessive disorders are learned, and so by manipulating the environment and the stimuli thereof, even these behaviors could be unlearned and the client rendered asymptomatic. Recognizing the role of cognition has led to many cognitive approaches in attempts to understand both normal and abnormal human behavior. It is well known that the practice of cognitive therapy/cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) originated from the ideas of Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck. This therapy seemed to be preferred, as it helped clients to overcome their symptoms within a reasonably short period of time and this change was both observable and measurable. CBT involved helping clients develop skills for identifying dysfunctional thinking, evaluating thoughts, and relating to others in different ways by changing one’s own behaviors. While in this approach the cognitions are identified, confronted, and changed, in metacognitive therapy (MCT) by Adrian Wells (review of this book follows), the emphasis is on metacognitions (anxiety, rumination, etc.). The book reviewed here contains 11 chapters and appendices consisting of a large number of useful tests, techniques, and materials which all supplement and complement the contents of the book. The first chapter provides an account of the theoretical foundations, concepts, constructs, definition, and description of MCT (and follows with a differentiation between CBT and MCT). The major components of MCT are metacognitions, cognitive attentional syndrome (CAS), attentional training technique (ATT), detached mindfulness (DM), and internal activating events. Since CAS maintains persistent negative sense of self, in MCT an attempt is made to remove CAS and modify metacognitive beliefs. Having achieved this, the MCT therapist helps clients to adopt newer ways of experiencing and responding to inner events (allowing the thoughts and beliefs to pass by rather than controlling or influencing them), thereby facilitating the client to find new and adaptive ways of dealing with negative and positive metacognitions. Before embarking on treatment, assessment (Chapter 2) of metacognittive beliefs and CAS are done through interview, questioning, and tests specially devised for the