Volume 16, Issue 2
POTENTIAL USES OF FUZZY LOGIC: APPLYING FUZZY COGNITIVE MAPS (FCMS) IN CLINICAL PSYCHOTHERAPY
Abstract
This paper is focused on the potential usefulness of a fuzzy logic approach to clinical case management in psychotherapy, and particularly to the use of fuzzy cognitive maps (FCMs) as a tool for predicting and/or simulating human problem formation and resolution. After an introduction to fuzzy logic and fuzzy sets, the paper focuses on the fuzziness of natural languages. Then, FCMs are presented, and a specific one dealing with psychotherapeutic problems is discussed in detail. After that, the FCM is tested in terms of its power to simulate four different therapeutic dynamics: the dialectics between problems and solutions, the process of a problem becoming chronic, the relationship between improvement and relapse, and the role of difficulties in the process of therapeutic change.
Keywords
fuzzy logic, Fuzzy Cognitive Maps, case studies, psychotherapeutic process