September, 1999
Joshua Freedman
Josh: The tool that you introduced at the Nexus EQ Conference is "disputing catastrophic thinking;" what is that?
Martin: There is a skill that everyone has that they usually deploy in the wrong place. The skill is disputing. In learned optimism programs we teach people first to recognize the catastrophic things they say to themselves. For example, they might say, "No one is going to like me at this party. I never have fun at parties." We teach them first to treat it as if it were said by an external person whose mission in life is to make them miserable. Then to dispute it in the same way they would an external person. When you say these things to yourself, you treat them as if they were true. We generally have the skill of disputing other people when they make false accusations, and we can learn to do so with ourselves as well. That’s the central skill in both cognitive therapy and learned optimism training.
Josh: How young a person can be taught these skills?
Martin: We start at about age 10.