Why Psychotherapy Should Busy Itself with Building Character Strengths, Not Reducing Symptoms

Why Psychotherapy Should Busy Itself with Building Character Strengths, Not Reducing Symptoms

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has so inundated the mental health field that it has a monopoly over what most academics, health insurers, and governing bodies that oversee standards of care seem to believe constitutes psychotherapy itself. Framing psychological problems in terms of psychiatric diagnoses and their remediation along the lines of symptom reduction rules the roost. This tidy framework deceptively decomplexifies the convoluted na…