Pragmatic causal distortion in counselling

A person's actions are caused by the interaction between external environmental forces and internal personal forces. Attributing actions to one or the other set of forces is an arbitrary distortion. In therapy, attributing actions to external forces - particularly past events - relieves the client of guilt and helps him to make sense out of his actions. Attributing actions to internal sources provides a means by which the client can change his actions by changing his ideas, interpretation of events, and attitudes. Using both of these distortions of cause, a method of therapy is presented which emphasises the client's responsibility for his actions, and is aimed at developing the client as an active causal agent in his own life.