I don’t know about you, but trying to change your life or deal with challenging events can be difficult. And there are so many self-help guides on the shelves of bookstores that it is often hard to know where to begin. And once you start reading them, you discover that there are a lot of ideas repeated, some of them with little evidence to support them, and they often seem to have ideals and expectations that are almost impossible to achieve.
Back in 1961, Albert Ellis published a book called A Guide to Rational Living that has stood the test of time, selling over a million copies and still selling today. Ellis called his therapy Rational Emotive Therapy (RET) which, at the time, was groundbreaking and challenged the common Freudian approach to psychotherapy.
The central idea of the book is that our emotions are the product of our thoughts, ideas, beliefs, and values rather than stuff coming out of our unconscious. If that was the case, we didn’t need to get upset or anxious or emotional about our circumstances or things happening to us if we changed our thinking about them. We can have control over our emotions and reactions to things. This idea is the foundational idea of the book. The book provides guidance on how to think more rationally about our emotions and encourages us to challenge our beliefs, values, ideas, etc and evaluate them to make sure they are reasonable. If our believe and values—the assumptions we make about things—are not realistic, true, or appropriate, then our emotions will cause us to experience some sort of emotional pain.
Ellis’s writing style is very straightforward, clear, and no-nonsense. I guess you could say it’s a no-bullshit approach. At one point he says that, ‘The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You don't blame them on your mother, the economy, or the president.’ Tough words that, if appropriated into our lives, can be life-changing.
The book is well organised. It covers a range of topics such as reducing the need to constantly seek approval from others, dealing with anxiety, and getting rid of our fear of failure. As you read these chapters, Ellis articulates the principles of RET and how they apply in practice. This makes the book very practical.
Because Ellis’s language is very honest and straightforward, some readers might find him a bit too direct or harsh at times. RET is not about blaming us as individuals for our problems and issues. It has to be said that Ellis doesn’t quite navigate the fine line between blaming oneself and taking responsibility so a bit of caution is needed when reading the book.
Another issue is, because the book originated back in the early 60s, some of the language might be a bit outdated. The edition I was reading was published in 1997 so it still suffers from some of the language idiosyncrasies of the time. Even so, the principles are timeless and I have personally found them to be very helpful in understanding my own emotions and the need to think carefully about the assumptions, beliefs, and values that I hold that are the basis for them.
It’s interesting to note that many of the principes of RET are part of later psychotherapies such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy (REBT). And the recent flurry of books on Stoic philosophy shows that many of the ancient ideas of Stoicism are the basis of more recent successful therapies.
A Guide to Rational Living is an excellent resource if you want to learn to have more control over your emotions and reactions. It’s been around a long time and is still selling which indicates the enduring nature of its principles. So if you are looking for a no-nonsense approach to improving yourself and living a better life, check it out.