Hi, Keli -

C is, as you say, a strong statement. The reason it is not the correct answer is that it doesn't strengthen the therapist's argument; even if true, it is essentially irrelevant.

The bare bones of the therapist's argument can be paraphrased as "Cognitive therapy focuses on mental states that the patient can control. Therefore it is more likely to be effective than therapies that focus on mental states that the patient cannot control."

Answer B is correct because it articulates a hidden assumption (that therapies that focus on mental states beyond the patient's control are less likely to be effective). By contrast, answer C does nothing to either strengthen or weaken the argument; the existence or not of an alternative therapy with the same asset (focusing on conscious beliefs) has no bearing on the probability that cognitive therapy would be more effective than a treatment without that asset.

I hope this helps. Please post again if you have further questions.

Best,
Lyn

Hi, guys --

Answer E essentially consists of two statements:

(1) All of a patient's conscious beliefs are under the patient's conscious control

(2) other psychological states cannot be controlled effectively without psychotherapy

Of these, (2) doesn't make sense in context, as cognitive therapy IS a form of psychotherapy, not an alternative to it. (Note that if the word had been "with" rather than "without", there would be a much better case for answer E.)

As for (1), it is an extremely strong statement, but it doesn't directly support the argument, which already states that conscious beliefs are under the patient's control. Indeed, the argument doesn't require that ALL conscious beliefs be under the patient's control, as long as some useful and relevant ones are.

Hope this helps -- please post again if you have further questions.

Best,
Lyn