Feeling Good by David D

Feeling Good by David D.
Burns
The Book in One Sentence

 You can change your moods by learning how to restructure your
negative thoughts.
The Five Big Ideas

1. Your moods are created by your thoughts.
2. Thoughts that are dominated by pervasive negativity cause depression.
3. The negative thoughts which cause depression nearly always contain
gross, cognitive distortions.
4. There are 10 cognitive distortions that twist your thinking.
5. The most usual mental distortion to look out for when you are feeling
worthless is all-or-nothing thinking.
Feeling Good Summary

Cognitive therapy is founded on three principles:
1. Your moods are created by your “cognitions,” or thoughts.” A

cognition refers to the way you look at things— your perceptions,
mental attitudes, and beliefs. It includes the way you interpret things—
what you say about something or someone to yourself. You feel the
way you do right now because of the thoughts you are thinking at this
moment.
2. When you are feeling depressed, your thoughts are dominated by
pervasive negativity.
3. The negative thoughts which cause your emotional turmoil nearly
always contain gross distortions. Although these thoughts appear
valid, they are irrational or just plain wrong, and that twisted thinking
is a major cause of your suffering.
“Every bad feeling you have is the result of distorted negative thinking.
Illogical pessimistic attitudes play the central role in the development and
continuation of all your symptoms.”
“Every time you feel depressed about something, try to identify a

corresponding negative thought you had just prior to and during the
depression. Why? Because these thoughts have actually created your bad
mood, by learning to restructure them, you can change your mood.”
“Your emotions result entirely from the way you look at things.”
The Relationship Between The World and The Way You Feel.
Cognitive Distortions
 All-or-Nothing Thinking. You evaluate your personal qualities in
extreme, black-or-white categories. All-or-nothing thinking forms the
basis for perfectionism. It causes you to fear any mistake or
imperfection because you will then see yourself as a complete loser.
This makes you feel inadequate and worthless. The technical name for
this type of perceptual error is “dichotomous thinking.”
 Overgeneralization. You arbitrarily conclude that one thing that

happened to you once will occur over and over again. The pain of
rejection is generated almost entirely from overgeneralization.
 Mental Filter. You pick out a negative detail in any situation and
dwell on it exclusively, thus perceiving that the whole situation is
negative. When you are depressed, you wear a pair of eyeglasses with
special lenses that filter out anything positive. All that you allow to
enter your conscious mind is negative. Because you are not aware of
this “filtering process,” you conclude that everything is negative. The
technical name for this process is “selective abstraction.” It is a bad
habit that can cause you to suffer much needless anguish.
 Disqualifying the Positive. You transform neutral or even positive

experiences into negative ones. Burns calls this, “reverse alchemy.”
Disqualifying the positive is one of the most destructive forms of
cognitive distortion.
 Jumping to Conclusions. When you jump to conclusions, you

arbitrarily jump to a negative conclusion that is not justified by the
facts of the situation. Two examples of jumping to conclusion are
“mind reading” and “the fortune teller error.”
 Mind Reading. You assume that other people look down on you,
and you’re so convinced about this that you don’t even bother to
check it out.
 Fortune Telling. You imagine something bad is about to happen,
and take this prediction as a fact even though it is unrealistic.
 Magnification and Minimization. When you magnify, you look at
your errors, fears, or imperfections and exaggerate their importance.
This has also been called “catastrophizing” because you turn
commonplace negative events into nightmarish monsters. When you
minimize, you inappropriately shrink things until they appear tiny
such as your own desirable qualities or others’ imperfections. This is
also called the “binocular trick”.
 Emotional Reasoning. You take your emotions as evidence for the

truth. Your logic: “I feel like a dud, therefore I am a dud.” This kind of
reasoning is misleading because your feelings reflect your thoughts
and beliefs.
 Should Statements. You try to motivate yourself by saying, “I should

do this” or “I must do that.”
 Labeling and Mislabeling. Labeling refers to your tendency to create

a completely negative self-image based on your errors. Mislabeling
refers to your tendency to describe an event with words that are
inaccurate and emotionally heavily loaded.
 Personalization. You assume responsibility for a negative event when

there is no basis for doing so.
“Your thoughts create your emotions; therefore, your emotions cannot

prove that your thoughts are accurate.”
Dr. Aaron Beck said a depressed self-image can be characterized by the

four D’s:
1. Defeat
2. Defection
3. Desertion
4. Deprivation
“Only your own sense of self-worth determines how you feel.”

“The most usual mental distortion to look out for when you are feeling
worthless is all-or-nothing thinking.”
How to Boost Self-Esteem

1. Talk Back to That Internal Critic
1. Train yourself to recognize and write down the self-critical thoughts as

they go through your mind;
2. Learn why these thoughts are distorted; and
3. Practice talking back to them so as to develop a more realistic self-
evaluation system.
2. Use “The Triple-Column Technique”
“When you have a negative thought, ask yourself, “What thoughts are
going through my mind right now? What am I saying to myself? Why is
this upsetting me?”
The Triple Column Technique.
3. Use Mental Biofeedback
“Monitor your negative thoughts with a wrist counter. Click the button
each time a negative thought crosses your mind. Then, at the end of the
day, note your daily score and write it down in a log book.”
Notes Cont.
“When you are down on yourself, ask what you actually mean when you
try to define your true identity with a negative label such as ‘a fool,’ ‘a
sham,’ ‘a stupid dope,’ etc.”
“Once you begin to pick destructive labels apart, you will find they are
arbitrary and meaningless. They actually cloud the issue, creating
confusion and despair. Once rid of them, you can define and cope with any
real problems that exist.”
When you are upset:
1. Zero in on those automatic negative thoughts and write them down;

2. Read over the list of ten cognitive distortions. Learn precisely how
you are twisting things and blowing them out of proportion; and
3. Substitute a more objective thought that puts the lie to the one which
made you look down on yourself.
“Your feelings result from the meaning you give to the event, not from the
event itself.”
Editor’s Note
Burns quotes Stoic philosopher Epictetus at the beginning of the book:
“Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of
things.”
To learn more about Epictetus, and in particular, Stoicism, I recommend

reading, A Guide to The Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by
William B. Irvine.
“Irrational should statements rest on your assumption that you
are entitled to instant gratification at all times.”
The following two guidelines will help you to determine when your anger
is productive and when it is not.
1. Is my anger directed toward someone who has knowingly,

intentionally, and unnecessarily acted in a hurtful manner?
2. Is my anger useful? Does it help me achieve a desired goal or does it
simply defeat me?
“If you have a ‘should’ or ‘shouldn’t’ rule that has been causing you
disappointment and frustration, rewrite it in more realistic terms.
Replace ‘should’ with ‘it would be nice if.’”
“You’re not entitled to get what you want just because you want it.”
“Remorse or regret are aimed at behavior, whereas guilt is targeted toward

the ‘self.’”
“Sadness is a normal emotion created by realistic perceptions that describe

a negative event involving loss or disappointment in an undistorted way.
Depression is an illness that always results from thoughts that are distorted
in some way.”
“When a genuinely negative event occurs, your emotions will be created

exclusively by your thoughts and perceptions. Your feelings will result
from the meaning you attach to what happens. A substantial portion of
your suffering will be due to the distortions in your thoughts. When you
eliminate these distortions, you will find that coping with the ‘real
problem’ will become less painful.”
“Although your distorted negative thoughts will be substantially reduced or

entirely eliminated after you have recovered from a bout of depression,
there are certain ‘silent assumptions’ that probably still lurk in your mind.
These silent assumptions explain in large part why you became depressed
in the first place and can help you predict when you might again be
vulnerable.”
“A silent assumption is an equation with which you define your personal

worth. It represents your value system, your personal philosophy, the stuff
on which you base your self-esteem.”
If you feel moody, choose an activity, and instead of aiming for 100
percent, try for 80 percent, 60 percent, or 40 percent. Then see how much
you enjoy the activity and how productive you become.
“You are wrong in your belief that suicide is the only solution or the best
solution to your problem.”
“When you think that you are trapped and hopeless, your thinking is
illogical, distorted, and skewed.”
“Nearly all suicidal patients have in common an illogical sense of

hopelessness and the conviction they are facing an insoluble dilemma.
Once you expose the distortions in your thinking, you will experience
considerable emotional relief.”
“Your feelings of hopelessness and total despair are just symptoms of

depressive illness, not facts.”
Burns lets the following rule of thumb guide him: People
who feel hopeless never actually are hopeless.

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Feeling Good by David D.

The Book in One Sentence

The Five Big Ideas

Feeling Good Summary

1. Your moods are created by your “cognitions,” or thoughts.” A

“Every time you feel depressed about something, try to identify a

 Overgeneralization. You arbitrarily conclude that one thing that

 Disqualifying the Positive. You transform neutral or even positive

 Jumping to Conclusions. When you jump to conclusions, you

 Emotional Reasoning. You take your emotions as evidence for the

 Should Statements. You try to motivate yourself by saying, “I should

 Labeling and Mislabeling. Labeling refers to your tendency to create

 Personalization. You assume responsibility for a negative event when

“Your thoughts create your emotions; therefore, your emotions cannot

Dr. Aaron Beck said a depressed self-image can be characterized by the

“Only your own sense of self-worth determines how you feel.”

How to Boost Self-Esteem

1. Train yourself to recognize and write down the self-critical thoughts as

2. Use “The Triple-Column Technique”

1. Zero in on those automatic negative thoughts and write them down;

To learn more about Epictetus, and in particular, Stoicism, I recommend

1. Is my anger directed toward someone who has knowingly,

Replace ‘should’ with ‘it would be nice if.’”

“Remorse or regret are aimed at behavior, whereas guilt is targeted toward

“Sadness is a normal emotion created by realistic perceptions that describe

“When a genuinely negative event occurs, your emotions will be created

“Although your distorted negative thoughts will be substantially reduced or

“A silent assumption is an equation with which you define your personal

“Nearly all suicidal patients have in common an illogical sense of

“Your feelings of hopelessness and total despair are just symptoms of

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