REBT and Postmodern Philosophy

• REBT has two kinds of theories at its foundation: its philosophical outlook/general theory of human personality/disturbance and its theories of therapeutic change.

Postmodern Philosophy and REBT

• AE originated REBT as a logical positivist, someone who believed that truth was not absolute or pure, but that scientists come close to it by finding facts and drawing conclusions; truth is temporary.
• REBT has always been fairly postmodern, notably against absolute musts and shoulds, and therefore opposed to the notion of absolute truth.
• Main postmodern ideas:
  • Some kind of indubitable objective reality may exist, but we only seem to know it through our fallible, personal-social, different, and changing perceptions.
  • Views of what is good/bad and moral/immoral are largely personal-social constructions; identifying universal truths is an impossible task, and all ethical beliefs have a constructive nature.
  • Human personality has innate elements but also arises from relational and social influences and is less individualistic than commonly thought.
  • People are influenced or conditioned by cultural rearing; behaviors are multicultural and there is no conclusive evidence that their cultures are better or worse.
  • Solutions to problems depend on choosing goals and purposes; these are arguable and never absolute.
• REBT emphasizes thinking and working in a flexible and adaptive manner.
• REBT helps clients see how they create core dysfunctional philosophies and how they can constructively change them.

Philosophical Emphasis of REBT

• Much of the theory of REBT derives from philosophy rather than psychology.
• REBT favors clients making philosophical changes instead of only disputing specific Irrational Beliefs and automatic negative thoughts.
• REBT does not favor “positive thinking” or the replacing of negative thoughts with optimistic ones.
• Donald believed he was bad because he cheated his brother; positive thinking mantra did not help.
• REBT helped Donald dispute his Irrational Belief and adopt Rational Beliefs.

Multicultural Aspects of REBT

• REBT is open to clients from different cultures/minority groups because it opposes absolutistic, rigid thinking.
• REBT encourages preferences, goals, desires, and standards as long as people do not insist that they and others "must" follow them.
• REBT discourages clients from goals and values held in self-dictatorial or other-dictatorial ways.
• Therapists are free to help clients achieve their own goals/values but refrain from taking them to "musturbatory" extremes.

How Does REBT Define Rational and Irrational?

• In REBT, rational does not mean unemotional.
• Rational means "that which helps people to achieve their basic goals and purposes," whereas irrational means "that which prevents them from achieving these goals and purposes".
• Rational means self-helping, and irrational means self-defeating.
• Rational also means helping the group to survive and achieve its basic goals.

Healthy and Unhealthy Negative Feelings in REBT

• REBT states that feelings are "natural" and automatically follow thoughts or stimuli clients view as obnoxious or unpleasant.
• This is a healthy reaction; without negative feelings, people would not try to reduce negative stimuli.
• Positive feelings also motivate people to survive and be productive.
• REBT distinguishes between healthy negative feelings (sorrow, regret, frustration, annoyance) and unhealthy negative feelings (panic, depression, rage, self-pity).
• Healthy feelings produce self-helping and community-helping actions; unhealthy feelings interfere with reparative acts or result in inaction/destructive behavior.
• REBT encourages clients to feel strongly about succeeding but not to raise their strong desires to absolutistic demands.
• The REBT theories of desires and preferences vs. musts and demands say that these personal tendencies are intrinsically related and virtually all humans have both.

Biology and Human Rationality and Irrationality

• REBT suggests people innately and via social teaching develop into rational and irrational thinkers, unlike other psychotherapies that teach that human disturbance is primarily learned or conditioned.
• People are born constructivists, creatively solving problems for survival.
• Humans are more creative about what to think, feel, and do to survive.
• Humans have a wider range of pleasurable activities, and are more practical and self-actualizing than other animals.
• It's easy to emphasize human constructivism and downplay destructivism.
• Virtually all people sabotage themselves/others, despite efforts/desires to do better.
• Cultural groups add disturbance-creating irrationalities (absolute musts/demands) about their rules/standards.
• Human self-defeating behaviors exist, such as lack of discipline and procrastination.
• People who vigorously oppose "foolish" behaviors often engage in them.
• Millions acknowledge their self-harming behaviors, such as excessive drinking/drugging, yet consistently indulge in them.
• Individuals fall back to destructive acts, such as aggression/gambling, that they have worked hard to overcome.
• People often find it easier to perform self-destructive acts, such as overeating.
• Psychotherapists, who presumably know best what is destructive behavior, frequently engage in it.
• Virtually all people are born as well as raised to be irrational but are also largely rational.
• People can think about their irrational thinking, and to think about thinking about their thinking, so they are still constructivist.
• Relieving clients from self-damning requires letting them know they often think, feel, and act defeatingly, but can change themselves, and require work to reduce self-sabotaging.