Albert Ellis: originator of Cognitive Therapy
Dr Albert Ellis was a Fellow of 12 Divisions of The American Psychological Association.
He was the author of 85 books, 800 Academic Papers and creator of Cognitive Therapy.
REBT or Rational Therapy started in 1956. CBT started in 1967.
Ellis was widely reviled and hated by his colleagues for creating REBT, the Freudians deemed it superficial. Ellis year later felt that Psychodynamic therapy was in fact superficial as it had the same recurring repetitive theme.
Despite this Dr Ellis was a good Freudian Psychoanalyst but like most of us who have practiced it, he became frustrated with its lack of effective results. He later said that Freud wrote great fiction and tried to pass it off as science.
Influenced by how he managed his own childhood illnesses he took a more common sense approach to therapy and found that his clients got better.
Dr Ellis is responsible for changing social attitudes and encouraging rational self-helping thinking and unconditional self, other and life acceptance.
He said that we are and probably always will be fallible mistake making human beings but in order to ignore that fact we create fiction and myths, heroes and heroines.
In other words: we put ourselves under inordinate pressure to be a specific way and inevitably when we are not, we create anxiety, anger and depression.
In recent years, REBT has been re-branded and come out in different guises.
Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) leans heavily on REI.
A recent BBC news article described how Meta Cognition was new and effective in encouraging school children to think about their thinking.
I asked Dr Ellis in New York City the difference between REBT and CBT, he replied “REBT is more philosophical than CBT.
My understanding is that humans can think about their thinking and can suffer post traumatic stress disorder.
Animals on the other hand cannot think about their thinking and do not suffer post traumatic stress disorder. This tells me that humans can think wrongly about their thinking.
REBT has 3 core beliefs that are astonishingly accurate and lead to many problems.
Notice: that they all have shoulds, oughts, musts and inaccurate definitions.
Notice: It is what we tell ourselves, not the situation or other people but what we tell ourselves.
Core Belief 1
- I must be liked and approved off and if not I am awful human being.
This leads to anxiety, shame, guilt and depression.
(Student and I must get an A and if not I am a total failure: Musterbatory demands)
A client came to see me and said that she had a job interview coming up and that she was very nervous. Note the A to C movement.
I asked her what the purpose of the interview was; she said to get a better job.
I said so it is a splendid opportunity for you to express your undoubted abilities.
Well you could say that she said.
I said if there was a plank of wood a foot wide stretching from this wall to this wall and I said that I would give you a £1000 if you could walk across it without losing your balance, what would you say?
No problem she said, I said what if there was a pit of snakes underneath it. Oh that’s different she said.
I said all that has really changes is that you have moved your attention from the plank of wood to the pit of snakes.
What do you want from the interview I asked?
To get the job she replied.
I said well focus in on the plank of wood not the pit of snakes. Don’t let the job interview define you. Don’t let the tail wag the dog.
Trevor McDonald tells the story that after he had read News at ten for the first time he said to his producer that he was very nervous and the producer said, yes I noticed. I don’t pay you to get nervous…just read the news!
Focus in on the plank of wood and not he pt of snakes.
Core belief 2
- You should treat me well and if not you are a damnable person.
This leads to anger and passive aggressiveness
A friend of mine who is a GP was very angry one day.
It transpired he had been in hospital as a patient and he was nervous as too was the nurse.
The nurse ad missed a vein whilst taking blood.
My friend was still very angry after the procedure.
I said to him that you are saying that the mistake the nurse made should not, ought not, and must not have happened. He replied with great fury it should not have happened. I said to him: You are overlooking one thing, he said: What’s that. I said it happened!
Oh he replied I am trying to control the uncontrollable. I said what did you want from this procedure, then his whole demeanour changed, he said that since it was a blood pressure related procedure he could have shown her how to take blood.
He was recycling the past in the present and then creating an angry future!
Since there are 8 billion fallible mistake making humans on planet earth, bad things are going to happen. We move bad into awful by saying they shouldn’t
“Our slogan is, I will not should on myself today
Six months later he got his own back. My old dog was ill and I took him to see a vet, she was newly qualified and arrogant, she said the dog has a tumour on his liver, you will have to think about putting him down, and I wan to see him in a week’s time. I took the dog back a week later and she said, hmmm, he seems a bit better he has had a stay of execution!
I lost faith in her and took him to see my friend the GP. I am not a vet he said but as far as I can tell, the dog does not have a tumour on his liver. I took him to two separate vets who both said that the dog does not have a tumour on his liver!
I wrote a letter of complaint to the first vet but before I sent it I showed it to my friend the GP. He said, ah, you are trying to do what I was doing 6 moths ago. I said, what do you mean?
He said, well you are threatening to report her to her superiors; all you will achieve is that he will become fearful and probably not learn from the experience. He said what you want from this; I said I don’t want her to do this to someone else’s animal.
He said well why you don’t factually point out where she has gone wrong then close the letter by saying that in the hope you learn from this I won’t take this matter further!
The third core belief is
- World conditions under which I live must be the way I want them to be and if not I cannot stand it. (Can’t standititis.
This leads to procrastination, avoidance and difficulties with self-discipline.
Smoker when they try to give up, initially get the cravings then they make them worse by saying to themselves that they should not have them and they cannot stand it. They move bad into awful. Thereby convincing there nervous system that 4 thousand cancer inducing chemical are comforting.
No debate!
The moment you think you are doing yourself a favour you are in trouble!
I ask my smoking clients before hypnotherapy,
If you were standing in a Greenhouse and a child next to you was asking you hand down a bottle of green liquid from the shelf that they could not reach. You would be amazed with the reasons they would come up with, such as it looks really good, it will taste really good. But you would never, ever give the child the weed killer, so why give it to yourself?!
Not even a sip, no debate.
You always have a choice. People say that their problem is habitual. Really, I respond with for 50 weeks of the year I drive on the left in Britain but when I am in France for 2 weeks of the year I am in France I can successfully drive on the right hand side of the road!
Robin W. Thorburn ADHP (NC) MNRHP FNSHP UKCP (H)