Customer Reviews

A Guide to Rational Living

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The revolution I refer to is the one that followed in the wake of the original publication of this book in 1961. Ellis formally introduced his REBT therapeutic model in 1955, but at the time, few knew and fewer cared. However, this book would change that forever. No longer would we have to settle for self-help pablum like "The Power of Positive Thinking", because now we had a piercing book for the masses that explained both clearly and thoroughly three things that no popular work had ever told us before. First, we don't just "get" upset, we "do" upset. Or, in other words, we make ourselves emotionally disturbed. Second, the authors plainly explain how we make ourselves upset. We create our own emotional disturbances mainly through our irrational (aka, unhealthy, self-defeating) thinking. And third, Ellis and Harper give us many effective techniques to combat these thinking patterns. The techniques suggested are divided into cognitive, emotive and behavioral categories, although in fact there is significant overlap for the simple reason, as the authors point out, that we don't just think or feel or behave in a vacuum. Rather, we are thinking/feeling/behaving beings, and this interplay, luckily enough, offers us many ways to a "profound philosophic change" in our outlook, which is the goal of this work. Easily, the most influential self-help book ever written and rightfully so!

This is by far Ellis' most classical book about the orígins of emotional disturbances and how to overcome them. I agree with Philip, another reviewer, in that the REBT approach is the most profound and consistent way of cognitively, emotively, and behaviorally disputing your irrational beliefs. It not only urges the reader to ask: Where is the evidence for the validity of my beliefs? (like other Cognitive therapy approaches), but goes one step further by questioning the basic philosphies, e.g.: Even if I fail at very important tasks, does that make ME a failure? The answer: certainly not, because I am not my behavior and I am far too complex to be given any single global rating. In the essence it all comes to this: rate behaviors and deeds, but never the total person. Accept yourself and others unconditionally, even if you don't like certain behaviors, and, finally, achieve high frustration tolerance.
This book is the best starting point to get introduced to the fascinating philospohy of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. If you want, you then can proceed to the book by D. Burns: The new mood therapy. This is also an excellent book and can be a valuable supplement.
So get "a guide to rational living", read it and begin reducing your psychological problems. It certainly helps!

Just a word to students and those who believe that people must learn to counsel themselves. This book is an excellent starting point and it is introduced by the first (modern) CBT therapist and teacher.

Albert Ellis is the grand-daddy of modern psychology, and this book is the classic. While many psychologists and authors focus on one or several "pet techniques," Ellis and this book show you how to adapt an integrated set of rational (cognitive), emotive, and behavioral tools to your personal situations. And Ellis writes this and many of his other books for us non-psychologists...not just for "professionals."

The book starts by briefly summarizing the results of Ellis' ground-breaking work on what we do that causes us to feel and behave differently than we want. The author then teaches his general cognitive system...which includes very specific instructions...on how to change these feelings, behaviors, and thoughts. Ellis terms this system the "A, B, C, D" method of "disputing" irrational thoughts that are "irrational" because they (i) are not true and (ii) produce results that we don't want. The book then moves beyond this general system and shows you how to easily use cognitive, emotive, and behavioral tools to effectively stop your unwanted patterns. While the methods are extremely user-friendly, they do require work...beyond the reading.

Because this book shows how to effectively tackle a wide variety of patterns...the following is a partial list of chapters:
1. Overcoming the influences of your past
2. Refusing to be desperately unhappy
3. Tackling dire needs for approval
4. Eradicating dire fears of failure
5. How to feel undepressed though frustrated
6. Conquering anxiety
7. Acquiring self-discipline
...and others.

While many other psychologists/authors, such as David Burns in his "Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy," use cognitive methods, Ellis shows how to use many of them far more effectively than most others. And he also includes emotive and behavioral tools, many of which he created years ago and that his non-for-profit institute has used successfully for decades. While Burns' book has some excellent additional tools, I strongly suggest that you start with "A Guide for Rational Living" and then move on to Burns' book if you want.

I've gone back to this and a few others of Ellis' books several times during the last 10 years or so. After working through a new situation, I keep realizing how much this one volume still does for me.

In my opinion, the book's only weakness is its stlye of writing. It's older style is less interesting than that in some of Ellis' newer books. I strongly recommend it not for its literary value, however, but for what it can do for you.

In this classic book, Ellis and Harper provide a useful guide on how our irrational beliefs lead us to experience emotional disturbance and on how to change our irrational beliefs to more healthy ones. Although the book feels a little repetitive at times, this repitition helps to reinforce the authors' main points. The case examples given throughout the book hepfully demonstrate how the reader can learn to identify, dispute, and modify his or her irrational beliefs. If you think seriously about the advice in the Guide, it can have a positive impact on your life.

Lee J. Markowitz, Ph.D. student in Clinical Psychology

This book was great. It is all about how our beliefs determine our attitude toward life. I got a lot from the book. I would also recommend the book An Encounter With A Prophet a book that changes our negative beliefs about God. It was also of great benefit to me.

I can only tell you that I am about to purchase my 3rd copy of this book. I have read it and reread it so often that I need to. There's nothing like it and each reading brings a new insight! LOVE IT!

I can only tell you that I am about to purchase my 3rd copy of this book. I have read it and reread it so often that I need to. There's nothing like it and each reading brings a new insight! LOVE IT!

If you are uncertain about buying this book, just take a look at how many people have given this book 5 stars. I have read self-help books before and found most of them to be full of it. Dr. Ellis really has something here. This is a book that can really help you. It has really helped me. I know it may be hard to believe that a book can improve your life but the ideas in this book did just that. If you're not familiar with REBT,you will be after reading this book. It is a simple technique that you can apply to anything that is bothering you about yourself or your life. It's helps you to work on your thoughts. And no, it's not easy, it takes work, but it is possible. I have bought this book several times always to give it away to someone else. Also if you are not into sappy sob stories than this is a good book.

After continually searching for the reason I was feeling overwhelmed all the time, I think I found it. It is rooted in Irrational belief #2, as referred to in this guide -- the idea that you have to be totally competent and achieving. Constantly believing this led me to perceive that nothing I was ever doing was enough, and also led me to compare myself with everyone to see who had achieved more. Overall, I would feel great when I fared better than someone but would become unnerved when I was worse off. This book helped me to see how destructive and unproductive this is. The authors go as far as calling people with this sort of irrational belief "disturbed." I didn't like that much until I realized that it is essentially true -- there is no benefit or reason to hold such distorted ideas. Now that I am aware of where my "disturbed" thoughts are stemming from, I can put an end to them by dispelling my irrational belief. If your life is not where you want it to be, then there is a good chance it has to do with some irrational belief you've got buried in your thought process. Getting to the bottom of my unhappiness was priceless!