The Psychology Book

IN CONTEXT

APPROACH

Rational Emotive

Behavior Therapy

BEFORE

1927 Alfred Adler says that a

person’s behavior springs from

his or her ideas.

1940s The role of perception

in creating reality is

popularized by the Gestalt

Therapy movement.

1950 Karen Horney suggests

we escape from the “tyranny

of the shoulds.”

AFTER

1960s Aaron Beck says that

depression is a result of

unrealistic negative views

about the world.

1980 American psychiatrist

David Burns gives labels to

cognitive distortions such as:

Jumping to Conclusions,

All or Nothing Thinking,

Always Being Right, Over

Generalizing, and

Catastrophizing.

E

pictetus, an ancient Greek

philosopher, proclaimed in

80 CE, that “men are

disturbed not by events, but by the

views which they take of them.”

This principle is the foundation of

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy

(REBT), devised by Dr. Albert Ellis

in 1955, which asserts that

experiences do not cause any

specific emotional reaction; instead

it is the individual’s belief system

that produces the reaction.

Practicing as a psychoanalyst in

the 1940s and 50s, Ellis began to

realize that while many of his

patients gained an insight into

RATIONAL BELIEFS

CREATE HEALTHY

EMOTIONAL

CONSEQUENCES

ALBERT ELLIS (1913–2007)