Clinical Applications of Rational-Emotive Therapy

362 Pages·1985·7.95 MB·English

by  Albert Ellis

Clinical Applications of
Rational-Emotive Therapy
Clinical Applications of
Rational-Emotive Therapy
Edited by
Albert Ellis
Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy
New York, New York
and
Michael E. Bernard
University of Melbourne
Parkville, Victoria, Australia
Plenum Press • New York and London
library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
Clinical applications of rational-emotive therapy.
Includes bibliographies and index.
l. Rational-emotive psychotherapy. I. Ellis, Albert. II. Bernard, Michael Edwin,
1950- . [DNLM: 1. Mental Disorders-therapy. 2. Psychotherapy. WM 420 A6515j
RC489.R3A66 1985 616.89'14 85-3709
ISBN-13: 978-1-4612-9506-8 e-ISBN-13: 978-1-4613-2485-0
001: 10.1007/978-1-4613-2485-0
©1985 Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 1985
Plenum Press is a Division of Plenum Publishing Corporation
233 Spring Street, New York, N.V. 10013
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming,
recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher
Contributors
MICHAEL E. BERNARD. Department of Education, University of Mel
bourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
MICHAEL S. BRODER. Philadelphia Institute for Rational-Emotive Ther
apy, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Clinical psychologist in private prac
tice, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
IAN M. CAMPBELL. Department of Psychology, University of Mel
bourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
RAYMOND A. DIGIUSEPPE. Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy, New
York, New York
ALBERT ELLIS. Executive Director, Institute for Rational-Emotive Ther
apy, New York, New York
VINCENT GREENWOOD. Washington Center for Cognitive Therapy, 5525
Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C.
PAUL A. HAUCK • Clinical psychologist in private practice, Rock Island,
Illinois
WILLIAM J. KNAUS. Psychologist in private practice, Longmeadow,
Massachusetts
ROSE OLIVER • Clinical psychologist in private practice, New York, New
York. Staff psychotherapist, Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy, New
York, New York
HARRY SOBEL. Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School,
Boston, Massachusetts
v
VI CONTRIBUTORS
SUSAN R. WALEN • Baltimore Center for Cognitive Therapy, Baltimore,
Maryland. Department of Psychology, Towson State University, Tow
son, Maryland
GARY WITKIN. Behavior Modifiers, Valley Stream, New York
JANET L. WOLFE • Associate Executive Director, Institute for Rational
Emotive Therapy, New York, New York
CYNTHIA ZEEVE • Stanford University, Stanford, California
Preface
Since its launching in 1955, rational-emotive therapy (RET) has become
one of the most influential forms of counseling and psychotherapy used
by literally thousands of mental health practitioners throughout the world.
From its beginnings, RET has dealt with problems of human disturbance.
It presents a theory of how people primarily disturb themselves and
what they can do, particularly with the help of a therapist or counselor,
to reduce their disturbances (Ellis, 1957a,b, 1958a,b, 1962). Almost im
mediately after the creation of RET, it became obvious that the meth
odology could be used in many other fields-especially those involving
human relations (Ellis & Harper, 1961a), and in love, sex, and marital
relationships (Ellis, 1958a, 1960, 1963a,b; Ellis & Harper, 1961b). The
evident popularity and clinical utility of RET in different cultures and
its increasing application to contemporary problems of living indicate
that rational-emotive therapy continues to be vital and dynamic.
The growing appeal of RET may be due in part to its essentially
optimistic outlook and humanistic orientation; optimistic because it pro
vides people with the possibility and the means for change. Showing
to people how their attitudes and beliefs are responsible for their emo
tional distress and interpersonal problems (and not some out-of-con
scious early childhood experience), awakens in them the hope that, in
reality, they have some control over their destiny. Providing people with
a scientific method of rational thought enables them to foresee how they
can achieve emotional self-control and, as a consequence, how they can
lessen their own distress so that their personal goals can be achieved.
RET with its emphasis on total self- and other-acceptance, irrespective
of performance shortcomings and/or social disapproval, also encourages
people to become more completely self-actualized. The fullest devel
opment of human potential-one of the basic aims of RET-is further
encouraged in RET by helping people judge the rightness and wrongness
of their own actions as well as the actions of others in terms of how
these actions effect the achievement of personal and work goals.
One of the recognitions that Albert Ellis is most proud of is the
vii
viii PREFACE
award of Humanist of the Year, bestowed in the early 1970s, by the
American Humanist Association.
Today RET is being applied to a myriad of personal problems and
issues, some but certainly not all of which are written about in this book
and include: addiction and substance' abuse (Drake, 1964; Ellis, 1974a,
1982; Maultsby, 1978; Silverstain, 1977; Wolfe, 1979), adolescent and
child problems (Bernard & Joyce, 1984; Ellis & Bernard, 1983; Kranzler,
1974; Tosi, 1974), anger and rage (Ellis, 1977a; Hauck, 1974), assertion
training (Alberti & Emmons, 1982; Jakubowski & Lange, 1978; Lange &
Jakubowski, 1976; Lee-Gilmore, 1981; Paris & Casey, 1983; Wolfe, 1977;
Wolfe & Fodor, 1975), children's literature (Bedford, 1974; Garcia & Pel
l~grini, 1974; Merrifield & Merrifield, 1980; Waters, 1981), communica
tion (Crawford, 1982; Garner, 1981; Lacey, 1982; Martin, 1983), education
(Bingham, 1982; Gerald & Eyman, 1981; Knaus, 1974), executive lead
ership and management (Ellis, 1972, 1985), health and medicine (Ellis
& Abrams, 1978; Greenwood & Bernstein, 1982; Johnson, 1981), humor
and fun (Ellis, 1977b,c, 1981; Little, 1977), law and criminality (Church,
1975; Ellis & Gullo, 1972), love, marriage, and sex (Araoz, 1982; Ard,
1974; Ellis, 1958b, 1960, 1963a,b, 1976, 1979, 1982b; Grossack, 1976; Hauck,
1981,1984), philosophy (Ellis, 1968; Shibles, 1974), parenting (Ellis, 1978;
Ellis, Wolfe, & Moseley, 1966; Hauck, 1967; McMullin, 1978), religion
(Dougherty, 1979; Grau, 1977; Hauck, 1972; Lawrence & Huber, 1982;
Powell, 1976), self-discipline and high-frustration tolerance (Ellis & Knaus,
1977; Hauck, 1975; Knaus, 1979, 1982, 1983), and sports psychology (Bell,
1980; Ellis, 1982c; Gologar, 1979; Nardi, 1980; Orlick, 1980; Simek &
O'Brien, 1981; Wessler, 1980).
In addition to these publications, which describe how RET can be
applied to many important areas of human life, a variety of general self
help books have been written that show how rational-emotive principles
and techniques can help to solve almost any emotional problem. Some
of these books have been bestsellers: Your Erroneous Zones (Dyer, 1977);
1
New Guide to Rational Living (Ellis & Harper, 1975); Feeling Good (Burns,
1980); Overcoming Depression (Hauck, 1973); Help Yourself to Happiness
(Maultsby, 1975); and A Rational Counseling Primer (Young, 1974).
Audio cassettes have also brought RET messages to the general
public and some of them, too, have been bestsellers---including How to
Stubbornly Refuse to Be Ashamed of Anything (Ellis, 1973a), Twenty-one Ways
to Stop Worrying (Ellis, 1973b), Rational Living in an Irrational World (Ellis,
1974b), A Garland of Rational Songs (Ellis, 1977c), Twenty-two Ways to
Brighten Up Your Love Life (Ellis, 1982b), Self-hypnosis: A Rational-Emotive
Approach (Golden, 1982), Rational-Emotive Therapy and Women's Problems
(Wolfe, 1974), and Assertiveness Training for Women (Wolfe, 1977).
ix
PREFACE
Despite all of this material on the applications of RET to people's
emotional problems and to many areas of life, no one book shows how
RET can be applied to important and vital aspects of human existence.
Therapists, counselors, and mental health practitioners who want to
adapt RET to a particular kind of problem now have to search through
considerable resources, some of which are no longer up-to-date. Con
sequently, the editors of this book decided to invite a number of out
standing RET specialists to devote a chapter to how RET is used in their
speciality. All the authors have extensive experience in rational-emotive
therapy and cognitive-behavior therapy; several of them are pioneers in
these areas.
The book's first chapter, by the editors, provides a background for
the applications of RET to clinical problems by introducing its basic
theory, philosophy, and practice. The second, third, and fourth chapters
of the book deal with love, marriage, and divorce, respectively. In Chap
ter 2, Ellis-who for over 35 years has been a leading authority on
problems of love, sex, and marriage-writes about the diagnosis and
treatment of love problems. He describes the romantic myths of our
culture and highlights the treatment of obsessive-compulsive love, jeal
ousy and possessiveness, problems in encountering suitable partners,
and loss of love. Ellis includes in his chapter suggestions for keeping
love alive. In Chapter 3, Raymond DiGiuseppe, Director of Training and
Research at the Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy, and Cynthia
Zeeve, of Stanford University, provide new insights into how RET can
be combined with social-exchange theory in the practice of helping cou
ples who have relationship problems. The irrational beliefs that underlie
relationship difficulties are discussed. Michael Broder's chapter on di
vorce and separation stems from his innovative program known as
RO.A.D.S. (Rational Options in Adjusting to Divorce and Separation),
which encourages the establishment of support groups to help treat the
addiction to a terminated love relationship. As well as describing his
program, Broder also pinpoints the irrationalities that contribute to prob
lems in divorce and separation.
Janet L. Wolfe, Associate Executive Director of the Institute for Ra
tional-Emotive Therapy, has pioneered the use of RET with women to
help them cope with the practical and emotional problems of their tran
sition into more expanded roles. The past 10 years has seen the devel
opment at the Institute in New York of one of the broadest-based therapy
programs in the United States that addresses women's issues. Chapter
5 not only describes the work of Wolfe and her colleagues at the Institute
but also surveys a wide range of issues that will be of interest to prac
titioners seeking to update their knowledge in this area.
x PREFACE
The sixth and seventh chapters of this book directly concern dif
ferent aspects of human sexuality. In Chapter 6, Susan R. Walen, a
leading RET author, reviews the latest trends in sex therapy and provides
rational perspectives concerning different sexual behaviors and con
cerns. Her cognitive-behavioral feedback model of sexual arousal, which
details the important role of perceptual and evaluative cognitions, rep
resents an important new contribution in this area. Ian M. Campbell,
in Chapter 7, presents an extended theory of human psychological func
tioning, based on RET, which leads to the conclusion that sexual pa
thology is independent from the issue of sexual preference. Chapter 7
is recommended for those who are interested in the chain of irrational
thought processes (demandingness-awfulizing-Iow-frustration tolerance
globalizing) that is hypothesized to underlie an emotional disturbance.
The next two chapters deal with problems associated with estab
lishing healthy living patterns. Gary Witkin, an RET therapist with a
great deal of experience in helping people to lose weight, to give up
smoking, and to exercise, shares in Chapter 8 his insights into the cog
nitive distortions that interfere with those people who are trying to
maintain newly acquired positive health habits. A discussion of the self
defeating nature of fanatical and excessive adherence to principles of
healthy living breaks new ground in this area. Vince Greenwood illus
trates in Chapter 9 how RET can be used to help people stop or signif
icantly reduce substance abuse (e.g., alcohol, tobacco, barbiturates, am
phetamines, heroin, and cocaine) and to maintain the desired change.
An important contribution of his chapter is the description of disputa
tional strategies that can be used to zero in on the substance abuser's
core irrational assumptions.
Paul Hauck has written extensively on RET over the past 20 years
and is conversant on many issues of concern to RET practitioners. In
Chapter 10, he describes the compatibilities and incompatibilities be
tween RET and religion. William Knaus, a leader in the field of rational
emotive education (REE), demonstrates in Chapter 11 how the phenom
enon of student burnout can be treated with the use of REE. The ap
plication of REE to the treatment of a 10-year-old learning-disabled boy
reveals the ways in which RET can be simplified for use with younger
clients. In Chapter 12, Michael E. Bernard presents a rational-emotive
mental training program that he employed with a group of professional
football players. After a discussion of the ABC's of the mind and body
as well as the typical stresses that football players encounter, Bernard
presents material on how to teach different mental skills and attitudes
(relaxation, mental practice, disputation of irrational thinking, positive
thinking, goal-setting, concentration training) to professional athletes.