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Psychopathology arises from intertemporal bargaining as well as from emotional trauma

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 June 2015

George Ainslie
George Ainslie*
Affiliation:
School of Economics, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa; 151 Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Coatesville, PA 19320. george.ainslie@va.gov http://www.picoeconomics.org
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Abstract

The role of emotional trauma in psychopathology is limited. One additional mechanism is predictable from hyperbolic discounting: When a person uses willpower to control urges each success or failure takes on extra significance through recursive self-prediction, potentially motivating several constricting defense mechanisms. The need for eliciting emotion in psychotherapy is as the authors say it is, but their hypothesis about reconsolidation of memories adds no explanatory power.

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Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 38 , 2015 , e2
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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