I'm not discounting Cognitive Behaviour Therapy at all. I haven't tried it myself, but I can see why it would help, since it deals with thoughts, which can crea

I'm not discounting Cognitive Behaviour Therapy at all. I haven't tried it myself, but I can see why it would help, since it deals with thoughts, which can create new emotions. As I wrote in reply to ZenPsycho, I really missed an important point in my post above, which is that unconscious thought activity creating new emotions is definitely a part of the condition. Another way to explain the process I outlined above is to say that as a person becomes aware of his own thoughts, unconscious thought patterns are broken up and dissolved, and the emotions that were held back by these thought patterns are released/experienced. This is another, just as valid, perspective on the same process. So you are completely right to say that emotional release isn't the chief cause of the relief of symptoms; it's simply a part of the process that unfolds as we become more conscious of our thoughts.