Rational Emotional Therapy (RET) was founded by Albert Ellis in the United States in 1950s. It is a kind of cognitive therapy, and it also uses some behavioral therapy methods, so it is also called cognitive behavioral therapy.

Alice used to be a psychoanalyst who practiced for many years, but she was not satisfied with the theory and method of psychoanalysis in her own practice, so she turned from classical psychoanalysis to neo-Freudian school and then to behaviorism school, and gradually adopted a more active and guiding method in treatment. At the same time, influenced by Stoic philosophy, especially Epik Tetus, he gradually formed his own set of therapeutic theories and methods-RET, also known as ABC theory, in 195 1.

Second, the theoretical basis

1. View of human nature

Rational emotional therapy is based on the assumption that people are born with the potential of rational correct thinking and irrational distorted thinking. People tend to protect themselves, be happy, think and express in spoken language, love and communicate with others, grow and realize themselves. At the same time, there are also self-destruction, avoidance of thinking, conformism, repetition of the same mistakes, superstition, impatience, perfectionism and self-blame, as well as the tendency to avoid growth. Rational emotional therapy regards common human mistakes as normal phenomena, and tries to help the client accept that he is a person who will make mistakes constantly and get along with himself more peacefully.

Ellis (1979) listed some important assumptions of rational emotional therapy as follows:

(1) People are people. They are born with some physical and psychological limitations or boundaries, and they may overcome them to some extent.

(2) We know that all people will die.

(3) For most people, the purpose of life is to live in a relatively happy state. People may choose other goals, but biological factors predetermine that their goal is to live and be happy.

(4) Happiness-hedonism is a legitimate choice, but the long-term goal is a smarter and more rational choice than the short-term goal.

(5) Human behavior depends on powerful biological and social forces to a certain extent, but human beings can also resist those powerful pressures they have experienced. At the same time, they also have a strong factor of free will, which enables them to control.

(6)RET takes an existential position, that is, people create their own world to a great extent and take a phenomenological and subjective view of their own world.

(7) After people are born, there are some internal contradictions and conflicts. On the one hand, they have strong rationality and a tendency to pursue satisfaction, but on the other hand, they are often attracted by irrational actions, which hinders their healthy growth.

(8) One of the strongest natural tendencies of human beings is influenced by family, closest people and social culture.

(9) All normal people can think, feel and act. Their thoughts will profoundly affect their emotions and behaviors. Similarly, emotions will also affect their thoughts and behaviors, and then affect their thoughts and feelings.

(10)RET firmly believes that all serious emotional disorders are not caused by certain things and experiences, but by people's views on them.

Ellis believes that people can talk, evaluate and sustain themselves. When they have simple preferences (desire for love, recognition and success), they will mistake these for very urgent needs, which will lead to emotional and behavioral problems. Ellis also believes that people have a natural tendency to grow and realize themselves, but they often hinder their growth because of their natural tendency to distort their thinking and the self-defeating model they have learned.

2.ABC theory

We know that the basic proposition of rational behavior therapy is that emotional distress (different from sadness, regret and depression) is mostly the product of irrational thinking. The essence of irrationality comes from requirements, what the world should be, what the best must be. From the perspective of rational emotional therapy, many therapists only pay attention to the past history and events, as if any problem can be solved by changing the client's childhood. Other therapists force clients to know, express and express their feelings too much; Some therapists ask clients to relive early events and feelings at this moment. Ellis believes that these practices are not very effective, because the results of feelings will not disappear just because feelings are highlighted and expressed; On the contrary, clients and therapists should debate irrational beliefs that lead to negative emotional results together, and strive to change unrealistic, immature, imperative and absolute thinking methods into practical, mature and logical thinking and behavior methods, which can lead to more appropriate emotional responses to life situations.

A-B-C personality theory is the core of rational emotional therapy theory and practice. A is an existing fact, event or a person's behavior or attitude. B refers to the corresponding belief of an individual after encountering an induced event, that is, his views and comments on this event. C is the result of emotion and behavior or a person's reaction, which may or may not be appropriate.

A (cause event) will not lead to C (emotional result), but to B. B is a person's belief in A, and B leads to emotional reaction C. For example, if a person feels depressed after divorce, it is not the divorce itself that leads to the depressed reaction, but that the person has failed, been rejected or lost the belief of his spouse. Ellis believes that the belief of rejection and failure (at point B) is the main cause of depression (at point C), not the actual event of divorce (at point A). So people should be responsible for their emotional reactions and troubles. The core of rational behavior therapy is to teach people how to change the irrational beliefs that directly lead to their emotional distress.

How does emotional distress arise? It is caused by a person repeatedly suggesting illogical statements to himself, such as "divorce is my fault", "I am a poor loser", "everything I do is wrong" and "I am a worthless person". Ellis has repeatedly pointed out that people will feel what they think. Disturbing emotional reactions, such as depression and anxiety, are caused by self-defeating beliefs, which are learned and produced according to self-created irrational thoughts.

Therefore, there is no need to be depressed, blame yourself or punish yourself because of divorce. On the contrary, we can use a rational empirical conclusion: I'm sorry that our marriage didn't last well, and we divorced. I had hoped that we could solve the problem, but we didn't, but it didn't mean the end of the world. Just because our marriage failed doesn't mean that I am a failure in life. It is foolish to keep blaming yourself and let yourself take full responsibility for breaking up. According to the theory of rational emotional therapy, the final effect will be to reduce the feeling of depression and self-blame.

3. Unreasonable beliefs

Rational emotional therapy is to replace irrational thinking with rational thinking and ideas, and treat irrationality with rationality, so as to minimize the adverse effects of irrational ideas on their emotions and make them psychologically healthy.

(1) Unreasonable beliefs include:

One is unreasonable belief in myself (for example, I must do things perfectly);

Second, unreasonable belief in others (for example, bad people should be punished);

The third is unreasonable belief in the surrounding environment and things (for example, things that have been doomed cannot be changed).

(2) unreasonable belief characteristics:

First, absolute requirements (demanding)

That is, from one's own will, one thinks that something will happen or not, "should" and "must". Its irrationality lies in that it is impossible for people to succeed in everything, and it is impossible for them to be appreciated by everyone just because something succeeds. Once such a reality appears, people who hold this belief can't stand it, resulting in emotional and behavioral obstacles. This absolute requirement reflects his unreasonable and extreme way of thinking.

Second, over-generalization.

That is, a specific event, a certain words and deeds to prove their overall evaluation. This is a way of thinking that summarizes the whole and is the absolutism of thinking. People often go to extremes in absolute requirements, thinking that they are useless if they don't do something well or succeed, which only shows that they can't do it well. Therefore, people should evaluate the performance of a certain behavior, and can't deny personal value just because of one thing.

People often make unreasonable demands on others. If they hold absolute demands on others, they will find that others' words and deeds are always against themselves, thus falling into negative emotional experiences, such as "anger, resentment and depression".

Third, the worst is the worst.

That is, if something bad happens, the result will be terrible, terrible and disastrous. This way of thinking leads to anxiety, pessimism, depression, hesitation and other negative emotions. Exaggerating the negative result of one thing to the extreme reflects the extreme and unreasonable way of thinking of individuals.

Iris believes that people have a psychological tendency when they are born, that is, they have to insist that their wishes and pursuits can be met, expecting their wishes to be realized, and some wishes and requirements in life have indeed been successfully realized. This positive memory strengthens our "all-round illusion" and makes us think that we will be happier than everyone else, more successful than others and should be different from others. When we encounter setbacks and adversity, we can't accept them and think that they shouldn't happen to us, which leads to bad emotions.

Third, the treatment process and the technology used.

1. The treatment process of rational emotional therapy

(1) Psychological diagnosis stage

Usually at the first visit. After gaining the trust of visitors, consultants should explore the incentives of visitors. Find out its unreasonable beliefs according to ABCDE model. The problems he described may seem complicated, but the number of unreasonable beliefs involved is very small, and only a few unreasonable beliefs may react in different situations.

(2) Understanding stage

This stage is the preparation stage of treatment, and the main task is to let visitors know the knowledge of this therapy and make them psychologically prepared for the principle and implementation of rational emotional therapy.

Different levels of understanding:

A, point out the irrationality of thinking mode and belief to visitors, and point out the relationship between irrational belief and emotional distress, which can directly or indirectly introduce the basic principles of ABC theory to visitors.

B. Explain to visitors that unreasonable beliefs are learned from past experience and have always existed in people's minds through repeated thinking and behavior.

C, help visitors understand the causes that cause and make their symptoms last, that is, find out unreasonable beliefs (the most important understanding).

D, help visitors realize that some previously unanalyzed views are untrue, empirical and illogical, and prepare for the replacement of reasonable beliefs.

(3) Repair stage

Therapists should use logical and empirical methods to refute unreasonable ideas. The mode of debate can be referred to as follows:

A. Ask questions: directly ask the client whether there is enough factual evidence for his beliefs;

B. Value-oriented: Ask whether the current emotional and behavioral reactions of the parties are really valuable. For example, once you fail in the exam, can you pull a long face all day and give up your efforts?

C, extreme: what is the worst result of questioning the parties. If you don't get into the top five, what's the worst result? Is it really that terrible?

D. Update: Remind the parties "Think about it from another angle, is it a good thing that the exam results are not as good as you expected?"

E, exaggeration: deliberately exaggerating the beliefs of the parties, so that the parties can see its irrationality. Will you tell people that you didn't achieve the expected results in the exam and let the sky fall to remind others to be careful?

(4) the stage of establishing a new rational concept

After the above stages, the original unreasonable ideas of the parties are shaken, and the interveners should help the other party develop new reasonable ideas in time and consolidate them in time after discovering them. You can ask the parties to repeat the concept many times, so as to achieve the consolidation effect and make them more accustomed to adopting a reasonable way of thinking.

2. Treatment techniques

Practitioners of rational emotional therapy often add some powerful cognitive methods to the treatment process, which is determined by the theoretical basis of this therapy. Some cognitive, emotional and behavioral techniques are often used in the treatment process, as follows:

(1) Refuting irrational beliefs

It is very effective for people with certain cultural knowledge and reflective ability. The therapist is required to boldly and rudely challenge and question the unreasonable beliefs held by the visitors. You can ask questions in depth.

(2) change the content of self-suggestion

Rational emotional therapy believes that semantic ambiguity is one of the reasons for thinking distortion. Relevant parties can learn to use "prefer" instead of "must, best and should". They can learn to say "If … may be inconvenient" instead of "If … is absolutely terrible". Parties who often use helpless and self-blaming language can learn to use new self-suggestion. Replace "should and must" with "non-absolute priority". By changing the language form and making new self-suggestion, the parties can think and act in different ways. As a result, they often start to feel differently.

(3) the use of humor

A survey shows that humor is one of the most commonly used techniques in rational behavior therapy. Iris herself used many humorous techniques to refute the exaggerated ideas that got the client into trouble. Rational emotional therapy points out that emotional distress is often caused by being too serious, so that you lose your appreciation and sense of humor for the events in your life. Psychological counselors will use a sense of humor to help clients face up to their overly serious side and help them refute the philosophy of necessity in life.

(4) prepare for the worst.

Helping each other out of unreasonable ways doesn't always happen. Assuming the worst possibility helps the other person realize that emotional distress is not caused by this unfavorable event, and the real curse is inner fear and fear.

(5) Cognitive homework

Homework can be used to bring the progress of treatment back to daily life. One is fixed format assignment, which allows them to find A and C, then B and D as defense, and finally E as defense effect. Another free form of homework, completely by reasonable self-analysis, find out unreasonable beliefs and argue with them.

(6) rational psychological image

This technique is a kind of psychological exercise, the purpose of which is to establish a new emotional form. The parties imagine that they think, feel and act in the way they like in real life. They may also imagine that the worst thing has happened to them, and they will feel uneasy and irritable when faced with these situations, and then concentrate on experiencing the feelings at this time, and then turn these feelings into adaptive feelings. Once they can turn their uneasy feelings into appropriate sensory responses, they have a better chance to change their behavior in these situations.

(7) Role-playing

In this technology, let the parties and interveners exchange roles, defend unreasonable ideas, and let the parties play the role of interveners to refute and question. According to the function of mirror, the process of finding reasons and evidence to refute provides basis and materials for establishing new reasonable concepts.

(8) Shame and evil attack exercises

Iris (1988) has developed many exercises to help people get rid of situations that show unreasonable shame in some aspects. The point of this exercise is that when others clearly disagree with the views of the parties concerned, they can still not feel ashamed. This method contains two elements: emotion and behavior. The parties may have homework-take risks to do things they are afraid to do because they are worried about other people's ideas, but they are not encouraged to try things that may hurt themselves or others. A small violation of social customs is often an effective way to overcome shame. After doing these lessons, the parties may find that others don't care about their behavior as much as they think, so they no longer feel ashamed or lose face, and continue to do these exercises until they realize that their shame is caused by themselves, so they can naturally express their behavior.

Fourth, the application fields and objects of rational emotional therapy

Rational behavior therapy has been widely used to deal with anxiety, hostility, personality disorder, mental disorder, depression, sex, love, marriage problems, child rearing and adolescent problems, social communication skills training and self-management (Ellis, 1979b). Iris does not think that all parties can get help through logical analysis and reconstruction of outlook on life, because some people's intelligence is not enough to keep up with strict rational analysis; Some people are too divorced from reality; Some people are too old to be flexible enough; Some people stubbornly oppose logic, so that they cannot accept rational analysis; Some people are long-term evaders, or lazy people who insist on finding magical solutions to problems; Some people just don't do what rational behavior therapy requires; Some people seem to like to defend their misfortunes and refuse any minor changes.

The main application fields of rational behavior therapy include: individual therapy, group therapy, short-term therapy and marriage therapy. Iris (1994) mentioned that most individual clients meet once a week and receive five to fifty treatments. Ellis advocates that people with serious emotional distress should continue to receive individual and group therapy for more than one year, so that they can practice what they have learned in the treatment.

Verb (abbreviation of verb) evaluation of rational emotional therapy

RET was founded in 1950s, and it had a considerable influence in the field of psychotherapy. RET has been widely used in psychological counseling and treatment of women, children, teenagers, adults, the elderly and other different groups, as well as in different fields such as school counseling, marriage, love, family therapy, hospital and health counseling. This is determined by its unique advantages.

First of all, RET reveals the importance of irrational beliefs and irrational thinking in causing people's psychological troubles. In real life, there are indeed a large number of visitors' psychological problems related to irrational ideas. Unreasonable beliefs related to this can be found in every visitor who has emotional troubles. Only by changing unreasonable beliefs can we achieve certain results.

Secondly, the main contribution of rational emotional therapy lies in its emphasis on comprehensive and eclectic treatment practice. Many cognitive, emotional and behavioral techniques can be used to change a person's cognitive structure and his mood and behavior. In addition, rational emotional therapy also adopts other schools of technology, especially behavioral therapy. Although rational emotional therapy has other advantages, I want to mention again: teaching clients some methods so that they can continue to treat themselves without direct treatment by a therapist.

Second, RET takes less time and gets quick results. Its theory is easy to understand, its method is feasible, and it will not make people feel mysterious. RET's ABC theory can tell the true story, and its treatment process is also very operable, which is easy to be understood and accepted by psychological counselors, especially for the public, who can change their irrational beliefs by doing homework and reasonable self-analysis exercises. Of course, there are also some people with serious psychological problems who need the help of counselors. RET emphasizes that consultants should have a positive attitude and give full play to patients' subjective initiative, which is obvious to improve the consulting effect.

However, like many other psychotherapy, RET inevitably exposes many shortcomings in its operation and implementation.

First of all, on the question of how to define rational thinking, Ellis's statement is somewhat ambiguous and unsatisfactory. Ellis defined irrational thinking as "absolute" and rational thinking as "non-absolute", and believed that all psychological obstacles originated from similar irrational thinking. However, what is irrational thinking in absolute sense? What is rational thinking in a relative sense? It's hard to say.

Second, RET looks at all the troubles as the result of Cheng Shifei's rational belief, which is a bit biased. Because in fact, emotional distress is not only related to cognition, some scholars often question whether people with emotional disorders have absolute thinking beliefs as RET thinks. RET seems to exaggerate the role of cognition. In addition, it is not clear how much role cognitive methods play in the treatment. In addition, RET often uses rebuttal, debate and confrontation, which is a key step in the process of RET, but improper use can easily make visitors unacceptable and make people feel violated.

Third, rational emotional therapy does not listen to the history of the parties and does not encourage them to elaborate long and sad stories; In addition, methods such as subconscious stimulation, free association, dream interpretation and empathy are not used. Although some practitioners of rational emotional therapy emphasize the establishment of tacit understanding and cooperative relationship between the two sides, Ellis believes that personal warmth, being liked by the parties, expressing interest or concern for the parties are not the elements of effective treatment. It is hard for us to imagine that effective treatment can occur without empathy, understanding and care.

Fourth, RET has higher requirements for consultants. The basic principles of RET are rationality and logic. It requires that the counselor's values should be healthy and positive, which should be guaranteed by personality, knowledge, skills, perception, judgment and other factors. The same pair will not force visitors to accept it, otherwise it will hurt visitors and is not conducive to the development of visitors' autonomy. Like many other psychotherapy, the theory and method of RET therapy are controversial. Theoretically, the main controversial issue is that ABC theory mostly comes from phenomenology. Can it be confirmed by science? Are all psychological problems the result of irrational beliefs? In terms of treatment methods, the doubt about it is too much emphasis on human rationality.

To be sure, anyone with emotional and behavioral disorders will have irrational thoughts of one kind or another, and these thoughts will definitely have a great impact on their emotions and behaviors. Eliminating irrational ideas and establishing new rational ideas will certainly alleviate or eliminate their psychological barriers. In addition, in the process of counseling, not all psychological and behavioral problems can find a clear source of unreasonable beliefs. These problems limit the wide application of RET.

refer to

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Li Ming. Rational Emotional Therapy (I) [J]. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry,1997,7 (1).

Li Ming. Rational Emotional Therapy [J]. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry,1997,7 (1).