Categorical exclusion: Speciesism as a neglected dimension of prejudice in cognitive behavioral therapy

While CBT and ABA have recently begun to grapple with their own internal biases, the field's ethical framework remains stubbornly anthropocentric. Scholarship increasingly addresses systemic prejudice in research, yet speciesism-the hierarchical valuation of life based on biological category-is still largely ignored as a socio-political ideology. This is a significant oversight: psychometric evidence suggests that speciesism is not a fringe belief, but is cognitively rooted in Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), much like racism and sexism. Consequently, the discipline's human-centricity should not be viewed as a neutral default, but as an active ideological framework that prioritizes control over clinical insight. This is visible in the pathologization of vystopia. By framing the profound distress caused by industrialized animal exploitation as a cognitive distortion, clinicians commit a form of microaggression that can fundamentally weaken the therapeutic alliance. Furthermore, the behavioral emphasis on mastery and compliance uncomfortably echoes colonial power structures, treating sentient beings as mere variables rather than autonomous agents. To evolve, the field must adopt a socio-ecological model that recognizes the agency of both non-human animals and neurodivergent individuals alike. Decolonizing these frameworks does not dilute the efficacy of CBT; rather, it allows the discipline to function more fully as a science of liberation.