Therapists find that treatment of those people who seek help because

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

If, as this choice suggests, the very people who would lead the therapists to view such habits as more tractable do not come for treatment, it is quite understandable why therapists persist in their pessimistic view. At the same time, E is consistent with the survey results. Therefore, the last choice is the correct answer.

A is incorrect. Even assuming that this choice is true, no light is shed on why successes should be so rare in therapy, and yet, if the surveys are to be believed, so common overall. B is also incorrect. Since the comparative strength of habits is not an issue in the therapists’ findings or the surveys, it cannot have anything to do with the apparent contradiction; consequently, information about it cannot help resolve that contradiction. C is also not the correct answer choice. If C were true, the survey results would appear rather unremarkable, but the therapists’ findings would be baffling. The apparent contradiction would not be diminished but underscored. The fourth answer choice is incorrect. The survey results as reported focus on the numbers of people who have successfully fought a habit, not on the proportion of those who tried to break their habits who succeeded. This answer choice pertains only to the latter and so is essentially irrelevant.