The Woodworm in the mind: Pathogenic effects of counterfactual reasoning

With the occasion of a clinical case, Sbattella speaks of the counterfactual questions. The questions, as tools of systemic therapists, especially counterfactual ones, aim to open up new perspectives and alternative narratives. In this particular article, Sbattella reverses the question. Taking as an example the incident he describes, taken from the field of psychology in emergencies, he raises the issue of the pathogenic role of counterfactual questions, stating that on the first level, the answers and, consequently, the cognitive processes activated by them, serve a protective and defence function for the individual. But on a second level, it is a trap which activates in the individual obsessive rituals for a controllable and predictable world.