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| RATIONAL EMOTIVE THERAPY |
Albert Ellis, founder of rational emotive therapy, identified
11 “irrational beliefs” that people use to make
themselves unhappy. An example of an irrational belief
is, “If I love someone, he or she must love me back
just as much.” Ellis claimed that continuing to believe
this patently untrue statement will make the person
utterly unhappy, but he or she will blame it on the
person who does not return his or her love. Ellis also
believes that people have “automatic thoughts” that
cause them unhappiness in certain situations. He
used the ABC technique to help people identify these
automatic thoughts: A is the activating stimulus or
event, C is the excessive inappropriate response, and
B is the blank in the person’s mind that he or she must
fill in by identifying the automatic thought.
