Rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT), previously called rational therapy and rational emotive therapy, is an active-directive, philosophically and empirically based psychotherapy, the aim of which is to resolve emotional and behavioral problems and disturbances and to help people to lead happier and more fulfilling lives.Ellis, A. (1994) Reason and Emotion in Psychotherapy: Comprehensive Method of Treating Human Disturbances : Revised and Updated. New York, NY: Citadel Press
REBT posits that people have erroneous beliefs about situations they are involved in, and that these beliefs cause disturbance, but can be disputed and changed.
History Rational emotive behavior therapy was created and developed by the American psychotherapist and psychologist Albert Ellis, who was inspired by many of the teachings of Asian, Greek, Roman and modern philosophers.Ellis, A. (2004) Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy: It Works for Me—It Can Work for You. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.McMahon, J., &d Vernon, A. (2010) Albert Ellis: Evolution of a Revolution: Selections from the Writings of Albert Ellis, Ph.D. Fort Lee, NJ: Barricade Books. REBT is a form of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and was first expounded by Ellis in the mid-1950s; development continued until his death in 2007.Ellis, A. (2007) All Out! An Autobiography. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.Velten, E. (2010) Under the Influence: Reflections of Albert Ellis in the Work of Others. Tucson, AZ: See Sharp PressVelten, E. & Penn, P. E. REBT for People With Co-occurring Problems: Albert Ellis in the Wilds of Arizona. Sarasota, FL: Professional Resource Press. Ellis became synonymous with the highly influential therapy. Psychology Today noted, "No individual—not even Freud himself—has had a greater impact on modern psychotherapy."Epstein, R. (2001). "The Prince of Reason". Psychology Today.
REBT is both a psychotherapeutic system of theory and practices and a school of thought established by Ellis. He first presented his ideas at a conference of the American Psychological Association in 1956[ELLIS, A. Rational Psychotherapy. Paper read at Amer. Psychol. Ass. Chicago, August, 1956. Also J. gen. Psychol., in press] then published a seminal article in 1957 entitled "Rational psychotherapy and individual psychology", in which he set the foundation for what he was calling rational therapy (RT) and carefully responded to questions from Rudolf Dreikurs and others about the similarities and differences with Alfred Adler's individual psychology.Rational Psychotherapy and Individual Psychology. Ellis, Albert. 1957. Journal of Individual Psychology 13: 38-44. This was around a decade before psychiatrist Aaron Beck first set forth his "cognitive therapy", after Ellis had contacted him in the mid-1960s. Ellis' own approach was renamed Rational Emotive Therapy in 1959, then the current term in 1992.
Precursors of certain fundamental aspects of rational emotive behavior therapy have been identified in ancient philosophical traditions, particularly to Stoics Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Zeno of Citium, Chrysippus, Panaetius of Rhodes, Cicero, and Seneca, and early Asian philosophers Confucius and Gautama Buddha. In his first major book on rational therapy, Ellis wrote that the central principle of his approach, that people are rarely emotionally affected by external events but rather by their thinking about such events, "was originally discovered and stated by the ancient Stoic philosophers." Ellis illustrates this with a quote from the Enchiridion of Epictetus: "Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of them." Ellis noted that Shakespeare expressed a similar thought in Hamlet: "There's nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so."Ellis, Albert (1962) Reason and Emotion in Psychotherapy. p. 54 Ellis also acknowledges early 20th century therapists, particularly Paul Charles Dubois, though he only read his work several years after developing his therapy.
Theoretical assumptions
The REBT framework posits that humans have both innate rational (meaning self-helping, socially helping, and constructive) and irrational (meaning self-defeating, socially defeating, and unhelpful) tendencies and leanings. REBT claims that people to a large degree consciously and unconsciously construct emotional difficulties such as self-blame, self-pity, clinical anger, hurt, guilt, shame, depression and anxiety, and behavior tendencies like procrastination, compulsiveness, avoidance, addiction and withdrawal by the means of their irrational and self-defeating thinking, emoting and behaving.Ellis, A. (2001). Feeling better, getting better, staying better. Impact Publishers
REBT is then applied as an educational process in which the therapist often active-directively teaches the client how to identify irrational and self-defeating beliefs and philosophies which in nature are rigid, extreme, unrealistic, illogical and absolutist, and then to forcefully and actively question and dispute them and replace them with more rational and self-helping ones. By using different cognitive, emotive and behavioral methods and activities, the client, together with help from the therapist and in homework exercises, can gain a more rational, self-helping and constructive way of thinking, emoting and behaving.
One of the main objectives in REBT is to show the client that whenever unpleasant and unfortunate activating events occur in people's lives, they have a choice between making themselves feel healthily or, self-helpingly, sorry, disappointed, frustrated, and annoyed or making themselves feel unhealthily and self-defeatingly horrified, terrified, panicked, depressed, self-hating and self-pitying.Ellis, Albert (2003). Early theories and practices of rational emotive behavior theory and how they have been augmented and revised during the last three decades. Journal of Rational-Emotive & Cognitive-Behavior Therapy, 21(3/4) By attaining and ingraining a more rational and self-constructive philosophy of themselves, others and the world, people often are more likely to behave and emote in more life-serving and adaptive ways.
A fundamental premise of REBT is that humans do not get emotionally disturbed by unfortunate circumstances, but by how they construct their views of these circumstances through their language, evaluative beliefs, meanings and philosophies about the world, themselves and others.Ellis, Albert (2001). Overcoming Destructive Beliefs, Feelings, and Behaviors: New Directions for Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. Prometheus Books. This concept has been attributed as far back as the Stoic philosopher Epictetus, who is often cited as utilizing similar ideas in antiquity.
A-B-C-D-E-F Model In REBT, clients usually learn and begin to apply this premise by learning the A-B-C-D-E-F model of psychological disturbance and change. The following letters represent the following meanings in this model:
A Adversity B Beliefs about adversity C Emotional consequences D Disputations to challenge beliefs about adversity E Effective new rational beliefs F New feelings
The A-B-C model states that it is not an A, adversity (or activating event) that cause disturbed and dysfunctional emotional and behavioral Cs, consequences, but also what people B, irrationally believe about the A, adversity. A, adversity can be an external situation, or a thought, a feeling or other kind of internal event, and it can refer to an event in the past, present, or future.Dryden W., & Neenan M. (2003). Essential Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy. Wiley.
The Bs, irrational beliefs that are most important in the A-B-C model are the explicit and implicit philosophical meanings and assumptions about events, personal desires, and preferences. The Bs, beliefs that are most significant are highly evaluative and consist of interrelated and integrated cognitive, emotional and behavioral aspects and dimensions. According to REBT, if a person's evaluative B, belief about the A, activating event is rigid, absolutistic, fictional and dysfunctional, the C, the emotional and behavioral consequence, is likely to be self-defeating and destructive. Alternatively, if a person's belief is preferential, flexible, and constructive, the C, the emotional and behavioral consequence is likely to be self-helping and constructive.
Through REBT, by understanding the role of their mediating, evaluative and philosophically based illogical, unrealistic and self-defeating meanings, interpretations and assumptions in disturbance, individuals can learn to identify them, then go to D, disputing and questioning the evidence for them. At E, effective new philosophy, they can recognize and reinforce the notion no evidence exists for any psychopathological must, ought or should and distinguish them from healthy constructs, and subscribe to more constructive and self-helping philosophies.Ellis, Albert. (1994). Reason and Emotion In Psychotherapy, Revised and Updated. Secaucus, NJ: Carol Publishing Group This new reasonable perspective leads to F, new feelings and behaviors appropriate to the A they are addressing in the exercise.
Psychological dysfunction One of the main pillars of REBT is that irrational and dysfunctional ways and patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving are contributing to human disturbance and emotional and behavioral self-defeatism and social defeatism. REBT generally teaches that when people turn flexible preferences, desires and wishes into grandiose, absolutistic and fatalistic dictates, this tends to contribute to disturbance and upset. These dysfunctional patterns are examples of cognitive distortions.
Irrational beliefs REBT proposes four core irrational ways of thinking that create suffering:
Demands: The tendency to demand success, fair treatment, and respect (e.g., I must be treated fairly). Awfulizing: The tendency to consider adverse events as awful or terrible (e.g., It's awful when I am disrespected). Low Frustration Tolerance (LFT): The belief that one could not stand or tolerate adversity (e.g., I cannot stand being treated unfairly). Depreciation: The belief that one event reflects the person as a whole (e.g., When I fail it shows that I am a complete failure).REBT; Ellis, 1957, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336613187_iPBI_Scoring_Sheet_-_28_and_20_items
Core beliefs that disturb humans Ellis has suggested that humans take the above distorted ways of thinking and created three core beliefs or philosophies that humans tend to disturb themselves through: