A New Guide to Rational Living
by Albert Ellis, Robert A. Harper
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Book Summary Information
Author: Albert Ellis, Robert A. HarperForeword: Melvin Powers
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1975-08
ISBN: 0879800429
Number of pages: 233
Publisher: Wilshire Book Co
Book Reviews of A New Guide to Rational Living
Book Review: Powerful, straight to the point
Summary: 5 Stars
I read the reviews posted here before I decided to order this book. I found most reviewers gave it a four or five star rating. Our public wisdom is right. So I come back here after gaining great benefit from reading the reviews as well as this book itself to share my opinions with potential buyers and hope my review would get you to know this book more.
Dr. Albert Ellis is an acclaimed psychotherapist. He is the founder of REBT (Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy) and originator of the cognitive behavior therapy. What I admire Dr. Ellis is that he coped with those Freudian psychotherapists back in 1960s, in which neuroscience has not developed so well as today. Today more and more neuroscience studies have shown that Freudian subconscious therapy that urges clients to go back to their childhood to discover their deep-rooted hurt heart would do little to help a person to get over his/her destructive emotions. Recent studies have supported Dr. Ellis's theory largely. Such as (1) Our neurons keep developing. (2) Laziness or over-comfort would not bring about happiness. (3)TAN, found by Ann Graybiel and her colleagues in 90s, is an influential factor of habitualization in cognitive behavior therapy, and proves that our will would change the accustomed way of thinking in our brain to be feasible.
The reasoning that REBT explains about our disturbed feelings can be abbreviated into a string of letters: ABC. A stands for "Activating event" or "Adversities", IB is "Irrational Beliefs", and C is "Consequences". The authors argue that while we encounter unpleasant happenings we will naturally feel frustrated, sorrowful, and sorry. And they are healthy feelings, which are part of our human instinct. So we could avoid badness that we don't desire with these feelings. However, despair, depression, rage these sort of self-downing feelings are another story. They do not stem from activating events, but are the creations of our irrational beliefs. A cannot directly lead to C. They are the irrational beliefs that work right behind our thinking process to create prolonged, self-defeating disturbed feelings.
The authors spent a fairly large amount of time expounding on why and how REPT works in the early chapters. They even quoted the doubts the readers might want to ask and answer them with sound argument. The way we think is well explicated. They are very honest: No single self-help book or therapy works for "everyone" since personal valuation and commitment differ. But according to their counseling records and research their therapy would help most. They recommended you to try out their therapy, read on to see if their words make sense. Along with millions of other readers, my answer is a hundred percent positive.
They stated ten irrational beliefs that are the underlying power that holds us back, letting us feel anxious, depressed, incompetent, and etc., with each belief described through a total chapter. In the first part of a chapter, they listed several reasons to convince readers that those beliefs are really irrational, and then at least one case was unveiled to show a clear picture what and how these beliefs are held within. Cases are sometimes generic but mostly iconic. At the closing comments in each chapter there are several ways to cope with the irrational beliefs.
Not until I read A Guide did I realize that I have so several sabotaging irrational beliefs that disrupt my psyches. For example, irrational belief #2 "The idea that you absolutely must be thoroughly competent, adequate, and achieving" fits my profile. I used to be a sort of perfectionism thinker. I would just refuse, say, to write this review because of a bunch of silly reasons- I'm tired, my brain not functioning well right now, maybe tomorrow I'll get sober and so on. And my deep-rooted IB was actually the dire fear of failure. I now know I could value myself not in an achievement-oriented fashion. That IB was even blocking me from clear thinking and performing. In P122 it suggests,
"...stress your doing rather than perfectly well. Not that you won't find it desirable to perform well. Often you will, because by doing so you gain more goods, services and favors. Fine! But not necessary."
I now have found this IB inside me and know how to tackle it. I'd accept myself first before finishing an outstanding work. That's called USA- Unconditional Self Acceptance, and is also the main concept of REBT.
Rational thinking is different from positive thinking. Positive thinking is way better than negative thinking, of course. For example, "If I work hard enough I'll succeed at exam" is definitely better than" even if I work this hard I will still likely to fail". But positive thinking has its downside: (1) you can't totally control the environment (2) It may automatically lead to irrational thinking without debunking irrational beliefs beforehand: "I work hard I'll succeed. So I work hard I mustn't fail. If I fail..." That's another "MUSTurbatory" thinking. Instead, rational thinking is like this: I prefer success so I work hard. But even if I don't succeed I still accept myself as a valuable person." In rational thinking you don't down yourself because of your poor performance. And usually, like the authors argue and to my own experiment, the more you take off your "must", "should" IBs the better you perform because you don't let your destructive feelings created by IBs distract you and eat you up.
Well, I highly recommend this great self-helper to anyone who wants to lead a better life and get rid of those disturbed emotions. It teaches you to cope with your anxiety, panic, depression, anger, discovering your underlying irrational beliefs that cause them and to gain self-discipline. This is indeed one of the best self-thelper ever written. In short, it's easy to read (with numerous cases shown), easy to understand, and simple to follow.
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