In order to get the most out of this book, you need to know the nature of rational emotive behaviour therapy: this introduction is based on the four elements that comprise the name of the therapy: rational, emotive, behaviour and therapy.
When Albert Ellis established the therapy in the 1950s, he called it ‘Rational Therapy’ (Ellis 1958). He did so because he wanted to stress that emotional problems are based on irrational thinking and that if we are to address these problems effectively, we need to change such thinking to its rational equivalent. It is interesting to note that while REBT has had two previous names, the term ‘rational’ is common to all three names. It is the constant feature that spans REBT's more than fifty year old history. So what do REBT therapists currently mean by the term ‘rational’? We can best answer this question if we contrast it with the term ‘irrational’.
The terms ‘rational’ and ‘irrational’ in current REBT theory are most commonly used as adjectives in front of the noun ‘beliefs’. Such beliefs can also be thought of as attitudes in that they describe a person's stance or position towards something.
Let us consider the major characteristics of rational beliefs and contrast these with the major characteristics of irrational beliefs. In Table 1, we consider the rational belief in the left hand column and the irrational belief in the right hand column to facilitate the comparison.
The term ‘emotive’ in REBT means that which is relevant to your emotions. Like every other approach to therapy, REBT is based on a model of emotions. Since REBT is a therapeutic approach, it is primarily concerned with relieving people's emotional disturbance. However, it also acknowledges that people are bound to have negative emotions when faced with negative life events (henceforth called adversities in this book). To accommodate these two positions REBT distinguishes between emotions that are negative in tone and have largely unconstructive consequences and emotions that are negative in tone and have largely constructive consequences. The former are known as unhealthy negative emotions (UNEs) and the latter as healthy negative emotions (UNEs).
A rational belief is flexible or non-extreme | An irrational belief is rigid or extreme |
A rational belief is flexible
Here is an example of a rational belief that is flexible:
‘I want my colleague to like me, but she does not have to do so’ | An irrational belief is rigid
Here is an example of an irrational belief that is rigid:
‘My colleague has to like me’ |
| To compare this belief with the flexible version in the left hand column, we need to state it in its full form:
‘I want my colleague to like me, therefore she has to do so’ |
Imagine that you hold such a belief. As you do so you will see that this belief is flexible because while you assert what you want (i.e. ‘I want my colleague to like me . . .’), you also acknowledge that you do not have to get what you want (i.e. ‘. . . but she does not have to do so’). | Again imagine that you hold this belief. As you do so you will see that this belief is rigid because you not only assert what you want (i.e. ‘I want my colleague to like me . . .’), but also demand that you have to get it (i.e. ‘. . . therefore she has to do so’). |
A rational belief is non-extreme
Here is an example of a rational belief that is non-extreme:
‘It is bad if my colleague does not like me, but not the end of the world’ | An irrational belief is extreme
Here is an example of an irrational belief that is extreme:
‘It is the end of the world if my colleague does not like me’ |
| To compare it to the non-extreme version in the left hand column, we need to state it in its full form:
‘It is bad if my colleague does not like me, and therefore it is the end of the world’ |
Again imagine that you hold this belief. As you do so you will see that this belief is non-extreme because while you assert that you find the event negative (i.e. ‘It is bad if my colleague does not like me . . .’), you also acknowledge that such an evaluation is not extreme because it could always be worse (i.e. ‘. . . but not the end of the world’). | Again imagine that you hold this belief. As you do so you will see that this belief is extreme because you not only assert that you find the event negative (i.e. ‘It is bad if my colleague does not like me . . .’), but also claim that it could not be worse (i.e. ‘. . . and therefore it is the end of the world’). |
A rational belief is true
Imagine that you hold the following rational belief that I introduced above: ‘I want my colleague to like me, but she does not have to do so’. You will note that this belief is made up of two parts: •‘I want my colleague to like me . . .’ •‘. . . but she does not have to do so’ | An irrational belief is false Now imagine that you hold the following irrational belief that I introduced above: ‘My colleague has to like me’. Again this belief is made up of two parts: •‘I want my colleague to like me . . .’ •‘. . . and therefore she has to do so’ |
Let's take one part at a time. First, you can prove that you would like your colleague to like you; after all, this is your desire. Also, you can probably cite reasons why you want your colleague to like you (e.g. it makes for a good working relationship where you can help each other). So, the first part of your belief is true. | Let's take one part at a time. First, you can again prove that you would like the other person to like you for reasons discussed opposite. So, the first part of your belief is true. |
Now let's look at the second part of the rational belief. You can also prove that the other person does not have to like you. To state otherwise would be to deny that person free choice. So if both parts of this rational belief are true, we can say that the belief taken as a whole is true. | Now let's look at the second part of the irrational belief. You cannot prove that your colleague has to like you. If that were true, she would have no choice but to like you. This demanding component of your irrational belief in effects robs your colleague of free choice, which she retains in the face of your demand. Thus, this second part is false. As both parts of a belief have to be true for the belief to be true, we can say that the irrational belief is false. Also, when we consider this irrational belief in its short form (i.e. ‘My colleague has to like me’), it is clear that it is false since it again attempts to rob your colleague of the freedom not to like you which she does in reality have. |
A rational belief is sensible
Taking the rational belief, ‘I want my colleague to like me, but she does not have to do so’, we can ask the question: does this belief make sense? We can answer that it does since you are explicitly acknowledging that there is no connection between what you want and what you have to get. | An irrational belief is not sensible
Taking the full form of your irrational belief, ‘I want my colleague to like me, and therefore she has to do so’ we can again ask the question: does this belief makes sense? Here our answer is that it does not because it asserts that there is a connection between what you want and what you have to get. The idea that because you want something you have to get it is, in fact, childish nonsense when coming from an adult. |
A rational belief is largely constructive
When you hold a rational belief, the consequences of doing so will be largely constructive. For example, let's suppose that you hold the following rational belief, ‘I want my colleague to like me, but she does not have to do so’, and you bring this belief to a situation where your colleague snaps at you for no good reason. In this situation you will experience three different but related consequences, which we will now illustrate: • Emotional consequence: here you will tend to be concerned about your colleague's response, but not anxious about it. • Behavioural consequence: here you will be likely to enquire of your colleague in an open way if there is anything wrong. • Thinking consequence: here you will tend to think that your colleague is upset with someone or something which could be to do with you, but may well be nothing to do with you. | An irrational belief is largely unconstructive
When you hold an irrational belief the consequences of doing so will be largely unconstructive. For example, let's suppose that you hold the following irrational belief, ‘My colleague must like me’, and you bring this belief to the situation where your colleague snaps at you for no good reason. In this situation you will experience three different, but related consequences, which we will now illustrate. As we do so, compare these consequences to those that stem from your belief if it were rational (see opposite): • Emotional consequence: here you will tend to be anxious, rather than concerned, about your colleague's response. • Behavioural consequence: here you... |
