Emotion and two kinds of meaning: cognitive therapy and applied cognitive science

The clinical cognitive approach assumes that emotional reactions are mediated through the meanings given to events. Cognitive therapy aims to change emotion by changing meanings. It focuses on specific level meanings, evaluating the truth value of particular beliefs. Bower's science-driven associative network theory of cognition and emotion is also primarily concerned with specific meanings. This focus on meaning at a specific level causes problems, e.g. the contrasts between 'intellectual' and 'emotional' belief, between 'cold' and 'hot' cognition, and between explicit and intuitive knowledge. These problems are resolved in the Interacting Cognitive Subsystems (ICS) approach. ICS distinguishes between a specific and a more holistic, intuitive, level of meaning. In contrast to alternative approaches, ICS suggest that holistic level meanings are of primary importance in emotion production. Representations at this level consist of schematic mental models, encoding high-order inter-relationships and prototypical patterns extracted from life experience. The ICS approach to meaning is described and its implications for understanding and treating emotional disorders discussed, together with relevant empirical findings. ICS suggests a therapeutic focus on holistic rather than specific meanings, a role for 'non-evidential' interventions, such as guided imagery, and a rational basis for certain experiential therapies.