Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy

Albert Ellis first demonstrated and introduced his innovative rational-emotive therapy (RET) in 1957. In 1993, Ellis revised and expanded the scope of his theory, creating rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT). REBT resulted from Ellis's response to the frustration he experienced as a psychoanalyst when his patients were not improving using traditional psychoanalytic techniques. Ellis found that patients seemed to improve more rapidly when he was more active and direct in his methods. The perceived lack of efficacy of psychoanalytic treatment caused Ellis to return to his philosophical roots in Greek, Roman, and ancient Asian philosophy and seek a more effective form of therapy. These philosophies laid the foundation for REBT, which states that people are disturbed not by things, but by their views of those things.

Ellis focused on people's cognitions as the sources of their psychological distress and believed there were two basic biological tendencies in how humans think. The first is that humans have a biological tendency to think irrationally and in a dysfunctional manner. This is based on humans' predisposition to think “crookedly,” and is supported by the observation that irrational thinking is so prevalent despite the individuals' attempts to think rationally. The second biological tendency is that humans also tend to work toward changing their dysfunctional thinking and acting. Humans have the ability to recognize when their irrational thoughts are causing a disturbance, the ability to see that a change can be made to alter the irrational thinking, and the ability to actively work toward changing the irrational thoughts through cognitive, emotive, and behavioral methods. REBT works with that ability in order to help individuals identify and change their irrational belief systems to more rational ones. Overall, the image of the person in REBT is one of optimism. REBT has a basic proposition that people have goals, desires, and purposes in life that generally can be described as striving for happiness, a long life, self-actualization, success, approval, and comfort. Ahealthy person sees these goals and desires as options, not absolute givens that must occur.

Understanding this therapeutic approach can be best explained by going through the ABCs of REBT. An Activating Event or Activating Experience (A) is something that happens to a person. For example, a student receives a bad grade on a paper. People typically assume the Activating Event causes the emotional or behavioral Consequence (C) (perhaps the student's feeling of being a complete failure and withdrawing from the class, in this example). However, the Consequence is not a direct result of the Activating Event, but rather a result of the Belief (B) system the person has about the Activating Event. For example, if the Belief about getting a good grade on a paper is that it would be pleasant and rewarding to get such a good grade, but not mandatory, the resulting Consequence could be disappointment or frustration when receiving the bad grade and perhaps a resolve to do better in the future. However, if the person's Belief is “I must get a good grade because anything less than perfect means that I am stupid and will never succeed in life,” then [Page 824]the Consequence would be despair and depression when the bad grade was returned. Therefore, it is not the Activating Event that results in the Consequence, but the Belief, which is based on biological or genetic predisposition, constitutional history, prior interpersonal and social learning, and predisposed and acquired habit patterns.

...