Albert Ellis, the third author of this book, is well known for his atheism and attacks on religion even to me, a school teacher. He's notorious. Leaders of my church have used him as an example of the dangers for religious believers in the secular world of psychology! What a surprise to see his name on a book about counseling religious people! It is clear that Nielsen and Johnson have had a mellowing effect on Ellis (though he apparently maintains his atheistic views). Their book provides a clear description of this therapy and a well thought through explanation for why it will work and how to use it with religious people. The book is, evidently, intended for counselors, and I'm only an interested observer, but it gave me confidence that religious people like me can find an approach that will respect my beliefs and not feed me a bunch of psychobabble and mumbojumbo. I found myself thinking that this could work. Most heartening about the book was finding that these psychologists took an honest look at religious principles and were even willing to look at scripture to help their religious clients get better.

This book is pleasantly free of jargon and psychological intricacy. Instead it uses lay language and examples to demonstate that fatal and life threatening illnesses need not always lead to despair. Ellis and Abrams make the application of cognitive behavioral techniques readily attainable. Both authors are psychologists who have worked with large number of people who have faced death. Their experience is apparent in this work

This book is unique because it teaches concrete skills that people can use to improve their relationships. The point is that if people are responsible for themselves and their own thoughts and emotions and unilaterally accept others, they will feel happier in their relationships, be more open to improving their own weaknesses with their partner's help, influence their partners positively, and accept their own and their partner's flaws. It's probably most helpful for people who are already in committed relationships but have reached a kind of "standoff" or withdrawal from their partners, but know they still love them and want to re-connect. On the other hand, the 7 basic skills presents in this book would benefit us all and are useful in all types of relationships, from friendship to parent/child and spouse.

We would like to know if this book has been published in Spanish. (Sorry for using the review space, we didn't know where to ask for this information). Many thanks.

I saw the authors on Oprah Winfrey and then read the book. It has been a big help to my family. We( parents) yell less, the kids follow directions better, and our youngest child no longer has tantrums. The authors present specific "how to " techniques for helping parents teach children to follow directions, end lying, improve motivation and school performance, and how parents can enhance ther own communication with each other. The best parenting book my wife and I have seen. Also has very amusing examples and a great parneting quiz

"In his book, Rational Love, Shibles defends a version of rational situational ethics. The work contains interesting ideas, is smooth and easily readable." J. Janssens Tijdschrift voor Filosofie 1980 "Rational Love" is a revised reprint of part of the author's earlier book, Emotion: The Method of Philosophical Therapy, about which the reviewers wrote: "I have been reading your new book on emotion and I certainly am enjoying it immensely. It is easily the best book on the subject that I have ever read and gives the most adequate presentation of the various cognitive theories of emotion that probably has ever been published." Albert Ellis, Ph.D., Executive Director, Institute for Advanced Study in Rational Psychotherapy, New York. "I find Prof. Shibles Emotion book to be an extremely valuable survey of the broad variety of theories of emotion that are so often neglected by philosophers and psychologists as well." B. Solomon, Philosophy, University of Auckland. "Among the titles which won top popularity accolades at the Eastern and the Midwestern Psychological Association was Emotion". Combined Book Exhibit "The work is excellent and provides interesting insights and philosophical viewpoints into the area of emotionality." David Patrick, Instructor in Psychology and Psychiatry, Northwestern University. "This exceedingly profound and thorough work is especially for professionals. This interesting book stimulates further work on the definition of emotion." Herta Winter, Erfahrungswissenschaftliche Blätter Emotion is cited in A. Rorty, Explaining Emotions, University of California Press 1980, as a general and historical study, rich in bibliographical material. It is also, cited by Albert Ellis in numerous books: (A list of citations of the author's works is available on request.)

The Silly Mind: Learning To Take Life "More Or Less" Seriously lucidly and humorously describes how we crate our own emotional disturbances -- and how we can deliberate and cogently undisturb ourselves. The Silly Mind will help the reader know how ideas are created, how emotional disturbances occur, how certain ideas create certain disturbed emotions, how to tell the difference between helpful and harmful ideas, how to use certain techniques to change disturbed feelings, how to act against these acquired harmful beliefs -- viewing oneself and the world with more tolerance and less rancor. The Silly Mind is a superbly presented and highly recommended contribution to any self-help, self-improvement reading list and reference collection.

For some reason, perhaps because many intellectuals suffer from and write about it, depression has become a trendy psychological affliction among people who by objective criteria have little to complain about.

Julian L. Simon suffered from depression for many years, yet he was able to defeat it through an eclectic approach incorporating ideas from his Jewish cultural background, cognitive therapy, existential therapy, Eastern philosophy and other sources. It's refreshing to find someone who emphasizes that depression derives from an unhealthy form of self-absorption that needs to be disputed vigorously. Stop making comparisons between your actual life and some hypothetical "ideal" life; recognize that you have an obligation to provide an emotionally healthy environment for the people you love; cultivate the values that conflict with your depression. In general, take action against your depression instead of selfishly wallowing in it.

Although Simon mentions his economics research only in passing in _Good Mood_, I also recommend reading his books about the positive trends in the environment, population and general material well-being to provide some cognitive support for a better attitude towards the human prospect.

The premise of Simon's theory is that depression is due to our tendency to compare ourselves to others, how we used to be, what we hope to be, etc. It sounds simplistic, but the book is actually very comprehensive. Rather than making generalizations about all depressed people, he details many different methods and combinations of methods so that you can choose the ones that will work for you.

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Ellis jokingly says on page 281 that REBT can relieve the sufferings of the damned in hell by teaching them that damnation is not "awful," but merely "inconvenient." This kind of remark shows the range of applications of his fundamental psychotherapeutic ideas, which he repeats over and over again in this collection of semi-scholarly papers.

While the repitition may be part of Ellis's didactic strategy, it does get tedious to read after awhile. You can get a better idea of Ellis's key teachings in his _Albert Ellis Reader_, published a few years ago and still in print.

I find Ellis's new infatuation with postmodernism in this book puzzling, however. If one's reality is subjectively or socially constructed, by what criteria can you decide that some ideas are "irrational"? And why is emotional upset considered undesirable without some objective standard of comparison?

This book contains the most up-to-date description of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy available. Ellis especially emphasizes the following:
* The use of action verbs (e.g. I make myself angry or depressed) instead of nouns (I suffer from depression). This continually reminds oneself of the principle of emotional responsibility: neurotic difficulties don't come out of the blue, I partly create them by my irrational beliefs
* The basic philosphical underpinnings of REBT and how REBT relates to other systems of therapy, e.g. systems therapy, (cognitive) behavior therapy and psychoanalysis
* The flexible use of therapeutic procedures, sometimes even non-REBT techniques, to help patients overcome their neuroticizing
* As usual, Ellis tries to help the reader to achieve unconditional self-acceptance, unconditional other-acceptance and high frustration tolerance
* In contrast to some earlier books, Ellis does not postulate to have a panacea for all psychological problems

At times repetitive, this book nonetheless is worth reading as it contains several so far underestimated aspects of REBT. I recommend it for therapists and people already familiar with the basics of REBT. The interested lay person should better read Ellis' book: Ellis, A. (2011). Feeling better, getting better, staying better.

This new book by Albert Ellis, founder of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), is a collection of articles he published in the last several years, some of them partly rewritten. Ellis originated REBT in 1955. Since then, it has gained great influence, primarily in therapy, but also in management coaching and training.

The basics of REBT have remained the same. They revolve around the ABCs of self-disturbing. (A) stands for the Adversities we encounter, (B) for our Beliefs about these Adversities, and (C) for the emotional and behavioral Consequences of these Beliefs. A coach, therapist, or trainer using REBT, has two goals: 1) to help people feel better and 2) to make them function better and does so by helping to replace the problematic Beliefs by more usable and realistic Beliefs.

Although the core of REBT has remained the same, some aspects of the approach have kept on evolving, and Ellis keeps on leading the development of REBT himself. The book shows many examples. Important is for instance that Ellis now defines the (B) of the ABCs not merely as Believing but as Believing-Emoting-Behaving.

Very interesting is how Ellis uses action language when writing about emotional problems. He thinks we misuse many nouns in psychology instead of verbs and therby create "semifictional entities" or "thought things". An example: Ellis doesn't say: "I suffer from depression" but "I depress (myself)".

A terrific chapter I found the one about postmodernism and constructivism in psychotherapy. I have never read such a clarifying chapter about this intruiging subject before. Ellis convincingly demonstrates how REBT and constructivism are not at odds but conincide well with each other. To illustrate, he says: "You have considerable power to construct self-helping thoughts, feelings, and actions as well as to construct self defeating behaviors."

Although this book is NOT intended to be a self-help book, each chapter ends with some great self-help suggestions, which can also be read as chapter summaries. This book, which is filled with great insights, shows the great inspiraton of Ellis, which is still there.

You don't have to get all of Albert Ellis's books like I tried to. Well, I bought three at once and it seems to me, they are pretty much all the same. It's helpful if you want to read more about cognitive behaviorial theraphy but I have found that the best book on this is David Burns' "Feeling Good" which is really worth it weight in gold. Sorry Dr. Ellis, your books are fine but not as good as Burns' book, I have found.

After reading Burns' if you want to read more, go ahead and buy one of Ellis's books and if you like it, read more, but again, Ellis's books seem all pretty similar to me. If you read the bibliography of Ellis's books, he has written dozens which focus on everything from sexual disfucntions to relationship problems, so, be choosy about books of his you buy, but again, if you want to not be miserable but feel good (at least a whole lot better), the FIRST if not the ONLY book is David Burns' "Feeling Good." (SEE MY REVIEW)

We all tend to carry in our heads some false messages which are self-defeating. By changing these tapes and getting rid of irrational thoughts we can then live happier and more successful lives, according to Ellis.

The theory of Rational Emotive Therapy is really quite simple. So is its practice. RET cuts right to the heart of the problem.Anyone giving RET a try as described in this book will probably reap distinct benefits with virtually no risk and little effort compared with other more time-consuming therapies.

Of my greatest irrational beliefs, the worst was that I was that my life had a greater meaning for this world than anyone else's. After suffering from a panic/anxiety disorder for several years, I was given this book by my therapist. I had partially convinced myself that the philosophical foundation for it was entirely too simple. Don't we all beleive that? "My case is a special one.", No My panic attacks aren't because of that, you're not understanding me." , "No one will ever understand why I feel this way." These are exactly the kinds of irrational beliefs that this book can put an end to. It's been in my possession for two weeks, and in that time I have had peace and clarity and a sense of mastery over my anxiety I have never had before. You're not different. You're not being singled out by God. Your belief that you are is the kind of irrational thinking that means you're right for this book. You're a human. Anxiety is part of life. Learn to cope with it rationally.