Research: Cognitive Distortion

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The concept of cognitive distortion has been used in victimological pseudoscience to assert that minor attracted individuals are unusually prone to distorted thinking and rationalisations. The motivations behind this usage have been described as political and probably span from a desire to pathologise political dissent and categorise all minor-attracted people as in need of corrective therapy. See Cognitive distortion (pseudoscience).

References

Here is a brief list of references. We are looking to complete an expanded and fully quoted revision.

• Fog, A., “Paraphilias and Therapy,” Nordisk Sexologi, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 236-242, 1992.

Agner Fog writes that "The rationale behind cognitive therapy is that the world view of the therapist is believed to be right and when the world view of the patient is different he is said to suffer from cognitive distortion".

• Shadd, M. & Mann, R. (2006). "A fundamental attribution error? Rethinking cognitive distortions," Legal and Criminology Psychology, 11(2), 155-177.

Shadd and Mann (2006) cast doubt on whether cognitive distortions lead to offending or reoffending. They also argue that the pathologization of cognitive distortions is inappropriate. In their view, excuses are a normal and healthy aspect of human behavior.

• Howitt, D., (1995). "Paedophiles and Sexual Offences against Children", John Wiley and Sons

"There are dangers, of course, in promoting the view that all child abusers lie and distort. The obvious one is the problem of how to deal with an honest offender."

• Gannon, T. A., & Polaschek, D. L. L. (2006). "Cognitive distortions in child molesters: A re-examination of key theories and research," Clinical Psychology Review, 26(8), 1000-1019.

Gannon and Polaschek claim that "the popularity of the cognitive distortion hypothesis is due to factors other than its empirical validity."