[8] Inference-based therapy hypothesizes that the doubt and investment in possibilities leave the person vulnerable to spiral into further imagined connections and dissociative absorption in what could further transpire.
[3][4] Initially, the model was developed mostly for obsessive-compulsive disorder with overt compulsions and for individuals presenting obsessive-compulsive disorder with overvalued ideas (i.e., obsessions with a bizarre content and strongly invested by the individual, such as feeling dirty after seeing a dirty person), given that the model revolves around the imaginative, often idiosyncratic nature of the obsession.
[10] According to inference-based therapy, obsessional doubt (obsessions) result from a narrative constituted by a specific inductive-reasoning style characterized by a distrust of the senses and an overinvestment in remote possibilities.
[5] According to inference-based therapy, individuals are more prone to experience specific obsessions in some and not other areas because the content reflects an underlying vulnerable self-theme (e.g., “I might be the type of person who is neglectful”).
[8] There is some empirical support for main premises of inference-based therapy regarding the role of inductive reasoning processes, the imagination, and inferential confusion.