The Psychology Book

240

CONTEXT

APPROACH

Choice Theory

BEFORE

c.350 BCE Greek philosopher

Aristotle says we are driven by

three things: sensual appetite,

anger, and boulesis, the rational

desire for what is beneficial.

1943 Clark L. Hull says that

all human behavior comes

from four primary drives:

hunger, thirst, sex, and the

avoidance of pain.

1973 US scientist William T.

Powers develops perceptual

control theory (PCT), which

suggests that our behavior is

how we control our perceptions

in order to keep them close to

internally fixed reference levels.

AFTER

2000 US psychiatrist Peter

Breggin publishes Reclaiming

our Children, criticizing the

use of psychiatric drugs as

“cures” for troubled children.

W

illiam Glasser openly

rejected conventional

psychiatry and the use

of medication, claiming that most

of the mental and psychological

problems that people experience

are actually on a spectrum of

healthy human experience, and

can be improved through changes

in behavior. His ideas focus on

achieving greater happiness and

fulfilment through personal choice,

responsibility, and transformation.

In 1965, he developed Reality

Therapy, a cognitive-behavioral,

problem-solving approach to

treatment that encourages clients

to seek what they really want in

the present moment, and to assess

whether or not the behaviors

Love and belonging

are among our greatest

non-survival needs.

When our close

interpersonal relationships

are troubled we

become unhappy.

Extreme unhappiness

can result in

symptoms that are

commonly associated

with mental illness.

We are, by nature,

social beings.

We can treat psychological

problems by repairing

interpersonal

relationships; psychiatric

drugs are unnecessary.

W E A R E

BY NATURE

SOCIAL BEINGS

WILLIAM GLASSER (1925– )