'What important problem am I reacting to?' In Bucharest, two days of therapy helped people blame themselves less

After a breakup or a loss, many people turn the pain inward and ask what is wrong with them. Psychologists at the University of Bucharest tested a gentler question. Their programme, cognitive evolutionary therapy, adds an evolutionary lens to standard talking therapy: the ache of separation is treated as a signal about deep human needs for closeness and safety, not as a personal defect. In a small preliminary trial, 61 adults with depressive symptoms took part in groups of five to seven for 16 hours across two days; a week later they had improved substantially more than a waiting-list group, with less anxiety and greater life satisfaction too. The advantage had faded by three months and the researchers are clear that a larger, independent trial is needed — but the early signal is real, and the format is brief enough to reach people who cannot commit to months of weekly sessions. The study was published in BMC Psychology.

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