Book Review: REBT - Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy

[Cron]

A Guide to Rational Living (Paperback)
by Albert Ellis, Robert A. Harper
ISBN: 0879800429

This book is the first book the great psychologist Albert Ellis wrote on Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy ( REBT - later known as "cognitive therapy"). I also think it is one of the best.

REBT is built on th idea that our thoughts cause our emotions and influence our behaviors. Ellis believes ( he is still alive ) that people can change their emotions as well as their behaviors by disputing their irrational thoughts with facts and reason.
REBT combines cognitive reappraisal, behavioral techniques and emotive techniques to bring about change.

In this book he goes through what he believes are the top 10 irrational ideas that cause most people to experience unpleasant emotions needlessly.

Ellis is not known for being a great writer, but in this book he pulls it together. The tone is direct as well as clear, free of psychobabble, and you never doubt that you are being addressed by one of the great psychological minds of the 20th century.

Beware, there are multiple editions of this book. To get the latest edition with the most content make sure you have the 3rd 1975 printing(august). It should have 23 chapters. Earlier editions do not.

Online Book Site Price Comparison
Guide to Rational Living: Ellis: ISBN 0879800429

[Fabricio Astelo]

This is my review of this book that I posted on my website, it might of interest to some people in case they consider buying it.

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Title: "A Guide For Rational Living"
Author: Albert Ellis and Robert A. Harper

One cannot evolve and grow as human being without mastering
his own thoughts, his own beliefs. You can do all the
courses on this blog, but if you still have psychological
problems inside waiting to be solved, you won't go far. It's
nothing to be ashamed of, everyone has/had them. Including
me. It's how you deal with them that matters.
You can go through all your life with ineffective thinking
processes and truly harmful belief systems or you can do
something about them. That's why I'm introducing this book
to you.

Don't make the mistake of putting this book on the same
category as all the other personal development books you
bought. It will be a big mistake. As far as personal
development books go, this is the only one you absolutely
need to read.

It's about self-analysis, with that said, it won't be for
everyone. Self-analysis itself is a process that requires
honesty and contemplation about your intimate self to
conduct it. Don't get scared by that, if you found this blog
then most likely you are interested about your own inner
processes and knowing yourself. Most people are able to do
it, with some effort and ruthless honesty about themselves.

"Direct, get-to-the-heart-of-the-problem methods teach you
what you often do to needlessly upset yourself and what you
can do, instead, to make yourself emotionally stronger"

I'm glad I found this book early in my life. It allowed me
to conduct it on the best way I thought possible without
being affected by emotional problems or the bad belief
systems I had early on.

The authors of this book are the creators of the Rational
Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT), which can be shortly
summed by the following quote:

"REBT's central premise is that events alone do not
cause a person to feel depressed, enraged, or highly
anxious. Rather, it is one's beliefs about the events which
contributes to unhealthy feelings and self defeating
behaviors"

I won't go into many details about the REBT. If you want a
more complete description, check the following links:
Welcome to the Albert Ellis Institute
The Essence of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy

Practicing the teachings of this personal development book
won't make you a purely rational person with no emotions.
That's often the criticism offered to the REBT. Albert Ellis
defends our emotional part, as long as it is used on a
healthy way. With this he means, not on a self-defeating or
self-pitying basis as many people do. Learn to "think
effectively" for YOUR best interest. YOU are the center of
YOUR life, not anyone else. Think in a way that's best for
YOU.

In short: If you can only buy one personal development book,
make it this one. This was the only book that I bought
several copies and gave it to members of my family and close
friends.

Yes, it's that good.

Rating: 10 out of 10

[GreatnessBlog]

The book Feeling Good, by David Burns, is a great cognitive-behavioral therapy self-help book for depression and anxiety.

[Cron]

Originally Posted by GreatnessBlog

The book Feeling Good, by David Burns, is a great cognitive-behavioral therapy self-help book for depression and anxiety.

It is a great book. It makes do-it-yourself cognitive therapy accessible.

Dr. Albert Ellis ( original post ) invented cognitive therapy in the 50s. He called it REBT and while REBT and cognitive therapy are mostly the same there are some powerful differences.

Two of the most powerful differences are that
1. Ellis identifies 12 core irrational beliefs that most people have that hold them back and that they can get rid of.

2. Ellis emphasizes using behavioral and emotive techniques in conjunction with cognitive techniques.

Subjectively, I have found the methods of REBT to be more straight forward and easier to apply than Burn's or those of cognitive therapy.

[agnostic]

I can highly recommend these books to anyone suffering from emotional problems of any sort. It's a brilliant and well-thought out approach and its effectiveness has been verified by scientific studies.

[Brendon Colby]

I just read "A Guide to Rational Living" and I'd say that it is in my top five list of personal development books. There is a chapter on it in the book Mind Performance Hacks which is how I found out about REBT ("Learn Your Emotional ABCs"). The WikiPedia article on REBT seems like a great introduction.

This book really "spoke" to me and helped me answer some questions I had about life. For example, in the last several years I have purchased hundreds of dollars worth of therapy, books, DVDs and CDs (Paraliminals, etc.) to help make me "feel" like doing tasks I found unpleasant. Here is a quote from the book that was a total revelation for me:

"Historical approaches to therapy remain popular partly because people who devoutly buy them can avoid taking full responsibility for their present behavior and for working actively to change it. They think, wishfully, that when they begin to _feel_ like doing unpleasant things, they will easily handle their frustrations. Actually, the opposite often is true: The more you _uneasily_ force yourself to do many annoying but productive pursuits (such as studying), the more you _then_ find these pursuits easy and enjoyable."

I had it backwards. I wrongly believed that I could make myself "feel" like doing unpleasant things so I would do them with less pain and discomfort (maybe I can, but nothing I did worked for me). Well, after hours of listening to CDs, watching DVDs, reading books and therapy I got to the point of giving up. I STILL didn't feel like doing these unpleasant things. I just didn't feel that my life was moving anywhere. This has kept me "stuck" for a very long time! I'm still working to integrate the belief that some things are just going to be difficult and that if I consistently take action they get easier (like getting into shape). I think I also believed that since I had a rather unpleasant childhood that my adulthood "should" always be pleasant and pain free and that it was awful if it wasn't. These are just a couple of the irrational beliefs that I've disputed and replaced with more effective beliefs.

For anyone who is interested in self-analysis, personal growth and becoming a happier person, I can't recommend "A Guide to Rational Living" enough.