Understanding Psychological Health: The REBT Perspective PDF
Preview Understanding Psychological Health: The REBT Perspective
Understanding Psychological Health ThisbookdrawsonRationalEmotiveBehaviourTherapy(REBT) – which focuses on resolving emotional and behavioural problems and disturbances and enables people to lead happier and more fulfilling lives – to provide an understanding of psychological health.Eachchapter looksatanimportant aspect ofpsychological health and then discusses it in relation to the REBT approach. Divided into two parts the book looks first at how people can remain psychologically healthy in the face of adversity and then goeson to discusshow these healthy philosophies underpin certain key areas of psychological health. As such, topics of discussion include: • flexibility • acceptance • self-motivation • resilience. Understanding Psychological Health will be of great interest to all therapists in both practice and training. Windy Dryden is Professor of Psychotherapeutic Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London. Understanding Psychological Health The REBT Perspective Windy Dryden Firstpublished2011byRoutledge 27ChurchRoad,Hove,EastSussexBN32FA SimultaneouslypublishedintheUSAandCanada byRoutledge 270MadisonAvenue,NewYork,NY10016 RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,anInformabusiness This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010. To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk. (cid:216)2011WindyDryden CoverdesignbyAndrewWard Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproduced orutilisedinanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans, nowknownorhereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingandrecording, orinanyinformationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissionin writingfromthepublishers. Thispublicationhasbeenproducedwithpapermanufacturedtostrict environmentalstandardsandwithpulpderivedfromsustainableforests. BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Dryden,Windy. Understandingpsychologicalhealth:theREBTperspective/Windy Dryden. p.;cm. ISBN978-0-415-56634-6(hbk.) – ISBN978-0-415-56635-3(pbk.)1. Rationalemotivebehaviortherapy.2.Mentalhealth.I.Title. [DNLM:1.Psychotherapy,Rational-Emotive.2.Adaptation, Psychological.3.MentalHealth.WM420.5.P8D799ua2010] RC489.R3D8252010 616.89'14–dc22 2010017316 ISBN 0-203-83909-9 Master e-book ISBN ISBN:978-0-415-56634-6(hbk) ISBN:978-0-415-56635-3(pbk) Contents Preface vii 1 Psychological health: from disturbance to dissatisfaction and development 1 PART 1 The basics of psychological health: being healthy in the face of adversity 5 2 Flexibility 7 3 Non-awfulising 30 4 Discomfort tolerance 44 5 Acceptance 61 PART 2 Psychological health: beyond the basics 87 6 Self-motivation 89 7 Self-discipline 107 8 Resilience 120 9 Tolerance of uncertainty 142 vi Contents 10 Self-control 158 References 173 Index 174 Preface This book follows up and complements my previous book for Routledge entitled Understanding Emotional Problems: The REBT Perspective (Dryden, 2009a). In each chapter, I will consider an important ingredient of psychological health and will discuss the salient issues from an REBT perspective. This is the first book on understanding psychological health written from an REBT perspective and as such it is unique. The book is divided into two parts. The first part of the book will be devoted to how people can remain psychologically healthy in the face of adversity. I will outline REBT’s well-known position on rational beliefs, but couch this in the form of healthy rational philosophies that underpin constructive action and subsequent realistic thinking. In the second part of the book, I will discuss how these healthy rational philosophies underpin certain key areas of psychological health. Throughout this part of the book I will stress a realistic, rather than an ideal view of psychological health and I will thus endeachchapterwithwhatIcallarealisticrationalcredoforeach area. Since some readers may only consult certain rather than all chapters, I end each chapter with the same brief discussion of the credo in question. Windy Dryden London and Eastbourne July, 2010 Chapter 1 Psychological health: from disturbance to dissatisfaction and development Levels of problems One of the defining characteristics of human beings is that we experience problems, and these problems can be viewed from an REBT perspective as existing at different levels. Indeed, one of the distinctive features of REBT is its position on these different problems and the order in which they should be addressed (Dryden, 2009b). Thus, people have emotional problems where we disturb our- selves about the presence of adversities in our lives. When we deal effectively with our disturbance, we still have dissatisfaction prob- lems about the existence of these adversities. Ifwe aresuccessful at changing these adversities, if they can be changed, or at adjusting constructively totheexistenceofthese adversitiesif theycannotbe changed, then we may experience development problems. Here, whilewearenotfacinglife’sadversitieswehaveasensethatweare not fulfilling our potential in life. As I said earlier, one distinctive feature of REBT is that it outlines a logical order for dealing with these problems. Tackling disturbance before dissatisfaction REBT argues that unless there are good reasons to the contrary, people should address their emotional problems before their dis- satisfaction problems.The reasoning here isasfollows: if we try to deal with our dissatisfaction before we deal with our emotional disturbance, then our disturbed feelings will get in the way of our efforts to change directly the adversities about which we are dissatisfied.
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