PHIL 6950 Lecture Notes - Lecture 71: Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Eker
19 Nov 2016
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PhilosophersNotes
More Wisdom in Less Time
Brian Johnson’s
“Thus, you may reduce your depression by using drugs or relaxation techniques.
But unless you begin to think more clearly and surrender some of your Irrational
Beliefs, you will tend to depress yourself again when you stop the drugs and
exercises. To effect permanent and deep-seated improvements, philosophic
changes seem to be best.
Again, we often encourage our clients to use medication, relaxation techniques,
movement therapy, yoga exercises, or other physical approaches. We believe that
these techniques may help. And we teach, as we shall show later, many emotive,
dramatic, fantasy, self-management, and behavior modication methods. More
than most other schools of therapy, REBT [Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy]
employs a comprehensive, integrative approach to treatment.
We still hold, however, that if you would most thoroughly and permanently change
your disturbed feelings, you’d better use considerable reasoning. Because a large
element (though not the whole) of destructive emotion stems from unrealistic,
illogical, and self-sabotaging thinking.”
~ Albert Ellis & Robert A. Harper from A Guide to Rational Living
Well, that’s ofcially the longest intro quote I think we’ve had in these Notes and this is #114. But
it captures the essence of A Guide to Rational Living quite well so we’ll stick with it. :)
Albert Ellis, the co-author of this straight-talking book all about getting our thoughts in order so
we can live happier, more fullled lives, was one of the most inuential psychologists of the 20th
century. In fact, he’s been ranked as the #2 top psychologist ever—right behind Carl Rogers (see
Notes on On Becoming a Person) and ahead of Sigmund Freud.
He’s essentially the founder of the modern cognitive behavioral therapy movement that’s been
scientically proven to be one of the most powerful ways to help people get out of a funk and this
book is a no-nonsense, kinda old-school guide to rockin’ it.
It’s packed with Big Ideas so let’s jump in!
THE ROOTS OF NEUROSIS: DISTORTED THINKING
“A discussion of the roots of neurosis is mainly a discussion of distorted thinking. From the
point of view of mind/brain as computer, most human beings are innately poor programmers.
They seldom succeed in setting themselves up to get along very happily in an imperfect world.
Neurotics are especially bad at it. Although irrational behavior is sometimes due to faulty
“hardware,” such as neurological impairment, it is also due to faulty “software,” to self-created,
self-defeating Irrational Beliefs.”
This book is all about challenging our “Irrational Beliefs” and re-programming our software.
A Guide to Rational Living
Over 1,500,000 Copies Sold
BY ALBERT ELLIS & ROBERT A. HARPER · WILSHIRE BOOK CO. © 1997 · 283 PAGES
THE BIG IDEAS
The Roots of Neurosis
Distorted thinking.
The ABC’s of Suffering
Action -> Belief -> Consequences.
A Frantic Search
For perfection is not a good idea.
Negative Emotions
Healthy vs. unhealthy.
Think AND Act
Pretty, please.
Make the Plunge!
Live experimentally.
Difcult
Does not mean impossible.
The Essence of Neurosis
Is blame.
Accept Yourself.
Judge your acts but not yourself.
Get Into Flow
Now’s a good time for that.
1PhilosophersNotes | A Guide to Rational Living
“Can we really change such
well-practiced mental
attitudes? Definitely. Will
it be easy? No—but those
who diligently work with
the cognitive, emotive, and
behavioral “tools” of REBT
have an excellent chance of
success.”
~ Albert Ellis & Robert A. Harper
So, how about a couple more computer metaphors? :)
T. Harv Eker strikes a similar theme in his Secrets of the Millionaire Mind (see Notes): “Your
programming leads to your thoughts; your thoughts lead to your feelings; your feelings lead
to your actions; your actions lead to your results. Therefore, just as is done with a personal
computer, by changing your programming, you take the rst essential step to changing your
results.”
While Will Bowen says this in his great little book A Complaint Free World (see Notes): “Less
pain, better health, satisfying relationships, a better job, being more serene and joyous ...
sound good? It’s not only possible, it’s probable. Consciously striving to reformat your mental
hard drive is not easy, but you can start now and in a short period of time—time that will pass
anyway—you can have the life you’ve always dreamed of having.”
THE ABC’S OF SUFFERING
“The mechanism of such an emotional disturbance is not difcult to grasp. It looks, at rst blush,
as though it’s just a matter of “stimulus” and “response”—as if something unfortunate happens
to people (the stimulus), and that, by itself, causes them to get upset (the response). But it looks
that way only because, when something unfortunate happens, the key element of emotional
arousal—their irrational thinking—leaps into action almost instantaneously and, of course,
largely out of sight.
The actual mechanism of an emotional disturbance is a stimulus-belief-response, or as we say in
REBT: “Action-Belief-Consequence.” These are the terms behind REBT’s well-known ABC model
of emotional arousal. Bottom line: it’s not our life events (Actions) that, themselves, directly
disturb us (produce unpleasant emotional Consequences). It’s our irrational demandingness, our
shoulds, oughts, and musts (Beliefs), that largely do the job.”
Well, there ya go. Those are the ABC’s of suffering. :)
“Action -> Belief -> Consequence”
Something happens (Action). We respond a certain way because of our conscious and
unconscious Beliefs. Then we experience the resulting emotions (Consequences).
As much as we try to be a victim to our circumstances, it’s never: “Action -> Consequence”
As you know, we talk about this all the time. And we have Albert Ellis and his passionate
commitment to getting these ideas into mainstream psychology (and therefore into pop
psychology) to thank for it.
In short: The key is to become more aware of what thoughts/beliefs we have when we’re
stressed. We need to practice identifying and challenging them—seeing if we can come up with
more empowering responses. And, in the process, we learn how to step in between the stimulus
and normal response so we can choose our most empowered response.
THAT, my friends, is pretty much what Optimism is all about.
I really like the way Sonja Lyubomirsky describes it in The How of Happiness (see Notes):
“Write down your barrier thoughts, and then consider ways to reinterpret the situation. In the
process, ask yourself questions like... What else could this situation or experience mean? Can
anything good come from it? Does it present any opportunities for me? What lessons can I
learn and apply to the future? Did I develop any strengths as a result?”
And she says this: “Essentially, all optimism strategies involve the exercise of construing the
world with a more positive and charitable perspective, and many entail considering the silver
lining in the cloud, identifying the door that opens as a result of one that has closed. It takes
hard work and a great deal of practice to accomplish effectively, but if you can persist at these
“Sensible thinking, we
contend, usually leads to
healthy emoting.”
~ Albert Ellis & Robert A. Harper
2PhilosophersNotes | A Guide to Rational Living
“Insisting that things
*ought* to go smoothly,
that mishap *must*
not occur, and that the
important people in our
lives *should* behave as
we have told them so many
times we *need* them to
behave... is fundamentally
irrational. Yet, as a species,
we naturally tend to think in
these distorted and self-
defeating ways.”
~ Albert Ellis & Robert A. Harper
Document Summary
No but those who diligently work with the cognitive, emotive, and behavioral tools of rebt have an excellent chance of success. By albert ellis & robert a. harper wilshire book co. 1997 283 pages. Thus, you may reduce your depression by using drugs or relaxation techniques. But unless you begin to think more clearly and surrender some of your irrational. Beliefs, you will tend to depress yourself again when you stop the drugs and exercises. To effect permanent and deep-seated improvements, philosophic changes seem to be best. Again, we often encourage our clients to use medication, relaxation techniques, movement therapy, yoga exercises, or other physical approaches. And we teach, as we shall show later, many emotive, dramatic, fantasy, self-management, and behavior modiication methods. More than most other schools of therapy, rebt [rational emotive behavioral therapy] employs a comprehensive, integrative approach to treatment.
